NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 115 



it reminds us of a surveyor who having to survey the estate of 

 his employer, thought he might as well, being so near it, report 

 upon the adjoining estate of his neighbour. The result is that, 

 in perusing Mr. Muirhead's volume, we are being perpetually 

 distracted from the purpose in view, which is obviously to make 

 us acquainted with the nature of the Berwickshire Avifauna, and 

 not with a hundred and one other things, poetical and proverbial, 

 many of which have quite as much relation to birds in general as 

 to those of this particular county. We think therefore that the 

 author would have done better to keep these matters distinct, and 

 by so doing to have embodied his county ornithology in one 

 volume instead of two. Subject to this objection, which with 

 many readers may be no objection at all, we have nothing but 

 praise to bestow on Mr. Muirhead's work. It is impossible to 

 peruse his pages without perceiving that he has read wisely and 

 well, a qualification for authorship which is quite as important 

 as the knowledge of how to observe. 



We have read every word of his well-written ' Introduction ' 

 (pp. xiii — xxvi) with pleasure and profit, and commend it to the 

 perusal of our readers in its entirety, since it furnishes an 

 excellent idea of the former condition of the county of Berwick 

 and the changes which have been brought about by drainage, 

 cultivation, and the gradual extension of civilization. Some of 

 the chapters on common birds strike us as being unnecessarily 

 spun out, and the fourteen pages of tables relating to Bookeries 

 (pp. 221 — 234) might have been summarised in a single page or 

 two. 



Like all books that emanate from the house of Mr. David 

 Douglas, of Edinburgh, it is admirably printed, and the etchings 

 and vignettes (by Mrs. Muirhead, and Messrs. M'Kay, Hole, and 

 Blair) with which it is profusely adorned, are amongst the 

 prettiest illustrations we have seen for a long time. In this first 

 instalment of the work, which is to be completed by the publica- 

 tion of a second volume, we find that the Passeres, Picarice, 

 Striges, and a portion of the Falconidce are dealt with, shewing 

 that the second instalment will be quite as bulky as the first. 

 We trust that it may speedily make its appearance. 



