166 THE OENITHOLOGIST. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



It is seldom that a popular work on British birds has been devised and 

 published with such a blind eye to profit and with such a sumptuous 

 appearance as the new work on " British Birds, with their Nests and 

 Eggs," by various well-known authors, which Messrs. Brumby and Clarke, 

 Ltd., of Hull and London, are now issuing. The work is to be completed 

 in about 100 sixpenny parts, published weekly, or 25 monthly parts. The 

 list of authors of different sections includes O. V. Aplin, H. A. Macpherson, 

 Murray A. Mathew, John Cordeaux, A. G. Butler, H. O. Forbes, 

 W. B. Tegetmeier, and H. H. Slater. The black and white illustrations 

 from drawings by that very competent artist, F. W. Frohawk, are deserving 

 of the highest praise, while the coloured plates of eggs are also good, 

 allowing occasionally for tints which must be more pleasing to the artist 

 than the oologist. 



The "Osprey" (supra, p. 97) has hatched successfully. No. 1, which 

 now lies upon our table, is a very creditable production indeed. Judging 

 from the size of the magazine and the number of illustrations, the 

 new-comer evidently relies upon having about eight times the amount 

 of support which the naturalists of this country can give to the 

 Ornithologist. 



In these days of decadence (?) it is gratifying to learn that there is still 

 one experienced and infallible ornithologist amongst us. Such a one is the 

 present editor of the Naturalists' Journal, and our reason for advertising 

 him in the present paragraph is that he especially desires to have the MS. 

 of ornithological works submitted to him by authors, as he appears to be 

 willing to come down from his " pinnacle " so far as to improve the work 

 of the said authors for them, and erase the many errors which their strict 

 adherence to their own experience in difficult questions leads them into. 

 It is strange, however, that in "reviewing" Mr. Swann's " Concise Hand- 

 book " recently (N.J., September, 1896), the only reputed mistakes pointed 

 out by this savant were precisely the same as those to be found indicated in 

 the reviews in the "Irish Naturalist," Ornithologist, &c, for it might 

 have been expected that he would have given a fresh list of all the egregious 

 blunders which his unequalled experience would make manifest to him. 



Strange to say, this savant is also the first to regret the absence of an 

 index to the trivial names as " an inconvenience which will be felt by those 

 not versed in Latin names.'' Most people who are not so versed do not 

 make an open acknowledgment of it ! Still we call to mind that this 

 " experienced ornithologist" is the gentleman who recently wrote some sort 

 of a list of British birds, in which Saxicola, Paiticilla, and other such namts 

 were deemed too atrocious for ordinary folk, and nearly all the Turdidss in 



