In two hanchome Royal Svo Volumes, cloth ffilt, jvice £1 12s. 6d. net. 



3sr O T E s 



ON THE 



BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 



BY 



LORD LILFORD, 



President of tbe Britiah Ornithologists' Union and of the 

 Northamptonshire Natural History Society. 



Illustrated by Messrs. A. THOEBURN and G. E. LODGE. 



WitJi a Map of NorthamptonsUire. 



" Here ai-e two splendidly illustrated volumes from the pen of our President, which 

 ■will be read with great interest by all members of the B. 0. U. and by other students of 

 our native ornis. They contain a series of notes on 227 species of birds which have been 

 recorded as occurring in the county of Northampton or in its immediate neighbourhood. 

 The bulk of them have been abeady published at irregular intervals in the ' Journal of 

 the Northamptonshire Natural History Society ' between 1880 and 1893. They are now 

 republished in a uniform shape, with corrections and additions, and will be found to be 

 ' excellent reading,' as not only are the local occurrences of every species described, but 

 general remarks, based upon Lord Lilford's great experience, not only in other parts of 

 England, but also in the south of Europe, are freely introduced. The numerous photo- 

 gravure plates are taken from drawings prepared by Mr. A. Thorburn, and the wood- 

 engravings are from the pencil of Mr. G. E. Lodge. All these, we need hardly say, are_ of 

 a very high degi-ee of merit, for it is not to be supposed that the President of our Union 

 w-ould accept anything but hrst-class work for the illustrations of his favourite subject. 

 We heartily congratulate Lord Lilford on having brought his many years' kboui-s on the 

 birds of his native county to a successful conclusion." — The Ibis. 



" Lord Lilford's keen interest in birds is well known, and his magnificent illustrated 

 work on the subject is the delight of all bird-lovers. These two handsome volumes of 

 ' Notes on the Birds of Northamptonshire and Neighbourhood ' consist for the most part 

 of papers contributed by Lord Lilford from time to time to the ' Journal of tlie North- 

 amptonshire Natural History Society.' But the notes and observations are by no means 

 confined to Northamptonshire and its neighbourhood. Lord Lilford has travelled much 

 and carried his love of birds, and his habit of observing them, wherever he went. ' I must,' 

 he says, ' explain my frequent reference to various parts of the world by stating that in the 

 early years of our society's existence we had not any member but myself who had devoted 

 any special attention to Ornithology, and I therefore thought it well to tell all that I knew 

 from personal experience of the birds I had to treat.' Thus, though Northamptonshire 

 and its immediate neighbourhood nominally supplies the local limitations of the book, its 

 real boundaries are those of Lord Lilford's travels and personal observation, and every 

 bird which can be connected, however remotelj', with Northamptonshire is described not 

 merely in reference to that particular habitat, but from the fulness of Lord Lilford'sknow- 

 ledge. ' I have no pretence,' he says, surely with undue modesty, ' to the title of scientific 

 ornithologist, but I have been a lover of birds from my earliest years, and a close observer 

 of their habits, till debarred from such observation by physical infirmity.' Lord Lilford's 

 observations are not, it is true, scientific or systematic ; but no lover of birds will appreciate 

 them the less for that, or fail to recognize in their spirit and method that kinship with 

 Gilbert While which to those who share it is an irresistible bond of sympathy. The work 

 is copiously and very effectively illustrated by Messrs. A. Thorburn and G. E. Lodge, and 

 should command a ready welcome far beyond the limits of Northamptonshire." — Times. 



\_Contimied on jifffe 3 of Wrapper. 



LONDON: 

 K. H. PORTEE, .7 PEINCES STEEET, CAVENDISH SQUAEE, W. 



