NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 149 



the Occasional Visitors being left out ; also of the Resident and 

 Migrant Picarise, Striges, Accipitres, and Columbse, the same 

 reservation being made to the Occasional Visitors." Fifty-three 

 species are figured, and form subjects for forty-two handsome 

 coloured plates. 



The story of our British birds has been told in many ways 

 and by many writers. This volume may almost be said to be 

 devoted to their iconography. The author seems to have taken 

 it for granted that there was not much left to be written about 

 his subject, and to have limited himself absolutely to describing 

 the plumage and its seasonal vicissitudes. In this course, 

 individually, he was probably justified ; a good book is not 

 necessarily one that exhausts its subject ; it should, however, 

 completely deal with its selected theme. We must therefore 

 refer to the illustrations, and by these the work will be known. 



The plates all bear the initials of the author, and have 

 evidently proved a labour of love. Not only have we life-like 

 portraits of the birds, but their environment has been sketched 

 in no inartistic manner, and we almost seem to recognize some 

 of the landscapes which an excellent insular prejudice has made 

 us love so well. The homestead behind the Spotted Flycatchers 

 is a case in point, while the background to the Tree-Pipit makes 

 us almost believe we are at home on the Surrey hills. A sketch 

 of the true environment of a bird is no mean hint as to its 

 habits, and, in looking over our skins obtained in other lands, a 

 mental picture of the scenery where it was procured appears to 

 pertain to each specimen. Apart from its value to all lovers of 

 our avifauna, it would perhaps be difficult to select a more 

 acceptable present to a British naturalist residing abroad than 

 this beautiful representation of the well-remembered birds of the 

 old country. 



A Manual of Zoology. By the late T. Jeffery Parker, D.Sc, 

 F.R.S., and William A. Haswell, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S. 



Macmillan & Co. Limited. 



In our volume for 1898 (p. 132) we noticed, at such length 

 as is available in our pages, 'A Text-Book of Zoology,' in two 

 volumes, by the above authors. The present publication may be 



