232 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



represented are the Gyr Falcon, the Honey Buzzard, the Eufous 

 and Aquatic Warklers, the Nutcracker, and the Squacco Heron ; 

 and the utility of the work is enhanced by the addition of a 

 county map. 



The Birds of Devonshire. By William E. H. Pidsley. Edited, 

 with an Introduction, and short Memoir of the late John 

 Gatcombe, by H. A. Macpherson, M.A. With Map and 

 Coloured Plate. London: Gibbings. Exeter: Commin. 

 1891. 8vo, pp. 194. 



Being aware that Mr. W. S. D'Urban and the Bev. M. A. 

 Mathew have, for the last twenty-five years, been engaged in 

 collecting materials for an account of the Birds of Devonshire, it 

 was with some surprise that we read the announcement of a book, 

 with this title, by Mr. Pidsley, a gentleman unknown to fame as 

 an ornithologist, even in his own county. To say that we are 

 disappointed with it, is only to echo probably the verdict which 

 has already been passed upon it by more competent critics, and 

 it appears to us that whatever merit it may possess is almost 

 entirely due to the editorial touches bestowed by Mr. Macpherson. 

 That Mr. Pidsley is wanting in experience, is evident from the 

 general lack of original observations of any importance. To a 

 certain extent, of course, books of this kind must be in the nature 

 of compilations; but then the compiler should at least be well 

 versed in the literature of the subject, even if he does not always 

 possess the requisite knowledge to enable him to distinguish the 

 wheat from the chaff. 



On the first page of the " Introduction," Devon is stated to 

 be the second largest county in England. If we mistake not, 

 Yorkshire and Lincolnshire are both larger, the area of the 

 latter county being 7 per cent, greater than that of Devon.* 



The river Tamar, which is said to rise in Cornwall (Introd. 

 viii.), takes its origin, we believe, from the Devonshire hills, on 

 the borders of Cornwall ; and Cranmere Pool, which is stated to 

 be the largest sheet of water on Dartmoor, and to fall short of 

 700 feet in circumference (I. c), is really only 384 feet in circum- 



* See Pengelly, Trans. Devon. Assoc, 1883, p. 230. 



