120 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



An Authenticated List of the Birds of Herefordshire. Compiled 

 by George Horne. 8vo, pp. 24. Hereford : Jakeman and 

 Carver. 



This may be described as a companion pamphlet to the last- 

 named, and is about as reliable. The expectations raised by the 

 word " authenticated " on the title have not been realised, and, 

 instead of having a treatise to supersede the very unsatisfactory 

 work which bears on its title-page the name of the late Dr. Bull 

 of Hereford, we meet with nothing but disappointment on nearly 

 every page. 



There are several species named which seem to us to have no 

 claim to be included at all in a list of Herefordshire birds ; such, 

 for example, as the Swallow-tailed Kite (which, if a Kite at all, 

 was more likely to have been Milvus regalis), Tengmalm's Owl, 

 Little Owl, Mealy Redpoll, Roller, Rock Dove, Little Bustard, 

 Sclavonian Grebe, Garganey, Scoter, and Smew. 



The Cream-coloured Courser is included on the strength of 

 a specimen said to have been shot at Backney Marsh, near Ross, 

 in 1854. The month, or season of the year, is not mentioned, 

 and in Dr. Bull's book (p. 213) it is said to have been shot in 

 1852. This specimen is not noticed in the fourth edition of 

 " Yarrell," and, though it is stated to be preserved in the Hereford 

 Museum, the information which is given respecting it is meagre 

 and unsatisfactory in the extreme. 



After all the correspondence which has appeared on the subject 

 of the Great Black Woodpecker in Herefordshire, and the positive 

 statements made by the Rev. Clement Ley and others regarding 

 its occurrence in that county, Mr. Home, for some reason or 

 other which he does not disclose, omits it altogether from his 

 List without a word of comment. 



As we believe there is no Catalogue of the birds in the 

 Hereford Museum, nor any history of many of the specimens 

 exhibited there, several of which are known to be of foreign 

 origin, it would have been better to have abstained from the 

 inference that because certain species are to be found there 

 they were probably obtained in the county. On the whole, we 

 are forced to the conclusion that an " authenticated " account of 

 the Birds of Herefordshire remains to be written. 



