318 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



The present handsomely illustrated quarto, now before us, 

 deals with the resident British Passeres. Fifty species are figured 

 (most of them life-size) on twenty-five plates, and the drawing and 

 colouring are extremely good. So good are they, that there is 

 very little room for improvement ; the most noticeable defect being 

 in the outlines of the beaks in the Corvidce, which appear to us 

 to be too small and slender in proportion to the size of the birds. 

 The figures are so grouped as to bring several species of one genus 

 on the same plate, so that the allied forms may be easily com- 

 pared. The three plates of Paridce should have been brought 

 nearer together, instead of being separated by the interposition 

 of the Dipper and the Reed Bunting, and although the Tree Pipit 

 is not a resident species, it might well have been figured on the 

 same plate as Anthus pratensis and A. obscurus, for which there is 

 plenty of room, in order that the Meadow Pipit and the Tree Pipit, 

 which are so frequently confounded by ordinary observers, might 

 be compared side by side. 



Opposite each plate we find a few lines of explanatory letter- 

 press, of which, it seems to us, there is too little. A page of 

 type would not have been too much to do justice to the subject. 

 The information given relates almost exclusively to the seasonal 

 changes of plumage, and is by no means exhaustive. 



No mention is made of the white-headed form of the Long- 

 tailed Tit, and Parus britannicus is accepted as a good species 

 without any indication of the characters by which it may be 

 distinguished from P. ater. In a long series it seems to us 

 impossible to separate them, the intergradation between the two 

 forms being so gradual. There may be appreciable differences 

 between specimens at both ends of a long series, but the inter- 

 mediate forms might be referred to either P. ater or P. britannicus 

 indifferently. This being so, we do not see how the latter can be 

 regarded as a good species. 



Mr, Wyatt states (p. 11) that the Rock Pipit is usually 

 associated with rocky sea-coasts where it breeds, and that it 

 frequents also the flat sea-coast. He might have added that it is 

 to a certain extent migratory, and that in spring and autumn it 

 is found inland at a considerable distance from the sea. 



The Wood Lark, Alauda arborea b is included by Mr* Wyatt 

 amongst the resident British Passeres, but there is reason to 

 believe that this bird, like the Pied Wagtail, leaves the country 



