NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 279 



fanciers; the directions given in their book relates to netting 

 and snaring birds for the table rather than for the aviary ; and 

 they eat song-birds as they would eat quails. In this respect 

 they resemble the French, who also eat anything that comes to 

 their net. Nevertheless, a goodly list might be made of French 

 books dealing with song-birds and their treatment in captivity. 



The volume before us by M. Henri Moreau has not much to 

 recommend it to English readers, and has many shortcomings. 

 The omission of the English names might be pardoned if the 

 author had given his authorities for the Latin names he employs, 

 many of which are misleading. For example, we open the book 

 at random at p. 190, and find the species there dealt with is "Le 

 moineau de Gould, ou le Clcebe (sic), Spermestes Gouldice" It is 

 not a " Sparrow," but a " Grass-finch," and was first described by 

 Gould in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' under the 

 name Amadina gouldice. Subsequently, in his folio work on the 

 Birds of Australia, he named it Poephila gouldice, and we may 

 search the Index to his 'Handbook' in vain for the generic 

 name Spermestes. The second French name which our author 

 writes, Cloebe, is puzzling to any reader who does not happen to 

 be acquainted with the generic name Chloebia proposed by 

 Reichenbach. Then again, the illustration which on the opposite 

 page does duty for a figure of this species is that of the long- 

 tailed mirabilis, which our author designates by the hybrid name, 

 le Diamant mirabilis, thus confusing the Diamond-birds with the 

 Grass-finches. 



The illustrations are not satisfactory, many of them, like the 

 Wagtail (p. Ill) and the Sky Lark (p. 425), being very coarsely 

 drawn and engraved ; while some of the most easily procurable 

 species, like the common Linnet (p. 83), are so badly done as to 

 be unrecognisable. 



The text seems to be more of a compilation than an original 

 treatise based upon personal observation and experience, and on 

 this account is open to objection. A book of this kind is not 

 good enough for the requirements of bird-fanciers at the present 

 day. What we should like to see would be a manual upon the 

 plan of Bechstein's, giving the English, French, German, and 

 Latin names for all the species, and including the cage-birds 

 which have been discovered and described since Bechstein's day. 

 At present we know nothing better than the English edition of 



