Notices of New Books, eic.



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merely compiled from the writings of other Naturalists, but in

this 20/- volume Mr. Bonhote tells us that his observations are

taken at first hand straight from Nature, and it is evident that

this is so, from the fact that in his descriptions of nests, the

author occasionally differs somewhat from other observers.


There can be little doubt that the materials and even the

character of a nest differ somewhat in various parts of the British

Islands, and it is possible that even the number of eggs laid may

vary: thus whereas all the nests which I found in Kent of the

Lesser Whitetliroat were far more compact and neat than those

usually constructed by its Greater cousin, Mr. Bonhote found the

reverse to be the case in those which he met with. In like

manner all my nests of the Yellow Hammer, though tolerably

firm in the interior, had the outside -walls very loosely con¬

structed. In England certainly, as stated by Mr. Bonhote, the

usual clutch is five (I have frequently found four); but it has

been positively asserted by one or two Scottish collectors that

three is the usual clutch in the north of Britain. In his des¬

criptions of eggs the author has, perhaps wisely, confined him¬

self almost invariably to the most frequent type.


Where the work all-round is so excellent, it seems perhaps

hypercritical to find fault, but I cannot help wishing that Mr.

Bonhote had not confined his observations on the sexes of many

birds, to the bare statement that the plumage is practically

alike : in the case of the Robin, for instance, it would be equally

easy to state that all the reddish orange on the forehead, eye¬

brow, lores, front of the cheeks, and especially of the chin, was

more or less smoky in the hen.


Mr. Bonhote deserves well of his fellows for his unstinted

condemnation of the Sparrow ; he very rightly concludes that

the only saving feature in this hooligan among birds is the quiet

beauty of colouring in country-bred males.


Touching the illustrations to this book one can only say

that, whereas all are good, some are better than others. Among

the most characteristic are those of the Blackbird, Redstart,

Dartford Warbler, Fire-crest, Tree Creeper, Spotted Flycatcher,

Magpie, the Raptores generally and the Limicolae. The plate

of the Goldfinch shows the usual sexual characteristics and is



