400 THE ZOOLOGIST. . 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



The Birds of Britain, their Distribution and Habits. By A. H. 

 Evans, M.A., E.Z.S., M.B.O.U. Cambridge : University Press. 

 1916. 4s. net. 



Mr. Evans's contribution to the already enormous series of British 

 bird books is of a handy size and attractively got up ; it is also plainly 

 written as a whole, with but few technicalities and no evolutionary 

 or sentimental padding. An introductory chapter gives some informa- 

 tion about the class as a whole, and is followed by a list of the orders 

 and families, while, after the general body of British birds has been 

 treated of, a nominal list at the end is devoted to occasional visitors. 



The book is designed for the use of schools, and for beginners 

 generally ; and it would have been better, in view of this, if a little 

 more attention had been given to the descriptions, which are often 

 very insufiQcient. Not only are the characters given often those of but 

 one style of plumage when the species exhibits, according to age or 

 season, more than one, but indications of size are rarely given, and 

 these, we know from much teaching experience, are particularly 

 needed by learners. The description of the Eaven as a " fine glossy 

 black bird " does not differentiate it from the Carrion Crow, and the 

 description of the female Eider as " plain brown and buff " would 

 suit half-a-dozen of our Ducks of that sex. Sometimes there are 

 positive mistakes, as where the young Starling is credited with 

 showing yellow on the bill, and the Mallard with a marked sexual 

 difference in the colouring of the speculum, said to be purple with a 

 w^hite border in the drake and green in the duck. The illustrations, 

 mostly from photographs, are numerous, but not always clear or 

 well selected ; it would have been better, we think, to have figured 

 the Eazor-bill rather than the Great Auk, and the Sparrow-Hawk 

 than the Greenland Falcon. Here also there are two grave errors : 

 the illustration purporting to show the Spotted Flycatcher represents 

 the Pied species, and is upside down, and the bird figured as the 

 Common Crane represents, not that bird, but a pied hybrid between 

 the Canadian and Manchurian Cranes which shares the Common 

 Cranes' paddock at the Zoo, where the photo was taken. The 

 distribution of birds outside Britain is not always correctly given, the 

 winter range being sometimes ignored, while it is even misleadingly 

 represented in the case of the Wigeon, said to visit in winter 

 " North America and other countries," this bird being, as a matter 

 of fact, only a straggler in the New World. 



