40 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Perhaps the most interesting of all Mrs. Blackburn's sketches 

 is that which she gives of the young Cuckoo ejecting from the 

 nest the young of its foster-parent, a Meadow Pipit. The story 

 is not new, for she published it many years ago, and had the 

 satisfaction thereby of confirming the earlier statements of Jenner 

 and Montagu, which had been doubted and even rejected as 

 incredible by so good an observer as Charles Waterton. Her 

 observations on the subject have been accepted and quoted by 

 other naturalists,* and have since been fully confirmed by the 

 late John Hancock from personal experience in the garden of his 

 friend Hewitson at Oatlands, in Surrey,! a fact which Mrs. Black- 

 burn might well have noted in her new volume. 



We have not found in the letterpress to this volume much to 

 provoke dissent, but a few slips here and there may be noted. 

 For example, it is a mistake to suppose (p. 6) that the Little 

 Auk (Mergulus alle) breeds in Shetland ; nor is it quite accurate 

 to state (as on p< 185) that " Herring Gulls and other Laridce do 

 not assume the adult plumage of white and grey for a year at 

 least." The bird, to which some of the older writers have given 

 the name " Wagel," is not, as Mrs. Blackburn supposes, the 

 Herring Gull, but a Skua of some kind, as is evident from the 

 description given of its habits, and referred to by herself under 

 the head of Skua (p. 187). 



It will be seen from the foregoing remarks that Mrs. Black- 

 burn is not only a gifted artist, but has also the instincts of a 

 true naturalist ; and if the merit of her publication lies chiefly in 

 her characteristic sketches of birds, its value is enhanced by the 

 interesting notes which she has appended from her observation 

 of their haunts and habits. It would be well, as we have already 

 hinted, if other artists who furnish illustrations for books on 

 natural history were to follow her example more closely, and 

 appeal oftener to Nature for inspiration than we find to be 

 the case. 



* See Gould, ' Introduction to the Birds of Great Britain ' (p. 91) ; Harting, 

 ' Summer Migrants ' (p. 239) ; Newton, in ' Yarrell's British Birds ' (ed. 4, 

 vol. ii. pp. 396, 397) ; and ' Dictionary of Birds' (p. 120). 



f See ' Zoologist,' 188G, p. 203. 



