Recently published Ornithological Works. 665 
Stone-Curlew, and Sheid-Drake are the most interesting; 
while the subject of Duck Decoys is hardly less so. 
119. Millais on Surface-feeding Ducks. 
[The Natural History of British Surface-feeding Ducks. With 
6 photogravures^ 41 coloured plates, and 25 other illustrations. By 
J. G. Millais, F.Z.S. Longmans ; folio, 1902. Price £6 6s. net.] 
The Ducksj as many of us know, are a favourite group 
with the author of this handsome volume. Mr. Millais, as 
he tells us, has been engaged in the study of Ducks for the 
past twenty years. As he is thoroughly conversant not only 
with the bodily structure and the various plumages of his 
specimens_, /but also with the habits and manners of the 
living birds_, and has, moreover, the advantage of being 
an artist of no mean order, we should expect good results 
from his labours, and are not, we think, disappointed. 
But a small portion, however, of his great subject is 
comprised in the present volume, which treats only of 
some of the '^^ Surface-feeding^'' Ducks. It relates, in fact, 
to ten species, namely, the Mallard, the Gadwall, two 
Wigeons, the Shoveler, the Garganey, three Teals, and the 
Pintail. All these birds are most elaborately discussed and 
described, and the changes of plumage undergone by them 
in both sexes and at all stages are clearly pointed out 
and illustrated in a long series of figures. Their poses and 
attitudes in life are mostly shown by figures in uncoloured 
plates and others introduced in the text, which, we must 
confess, please us more than the photographic gravures 
intended to shew the changes of plumage. At the same 
time we agree that the latter are well planned to prove the 
results obtained by diligent study of this difficult part 
of the subject. The large plates taken by the facile pencils 
of the author and Mr. Thorburn, and printed in colours by 
the three-colour process, are likewise extremely effective, 
although Mr. Millais allows that this process has not yet 
been brought to perfection. 
We need hardly say that besides the changes of plumage, 
to which special attention is paid, every other part of the 
life-history of these ten favoured Ducks is amply described 
