398 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



Turner on Birds : a Short and Succinct History of the Principal 

 Birds noticed by Pliny and Aristotle, first 'published by 

 Doctor William Turner, 1544. Edited, &c, by A. H. 

 Evans, M.A. Cambridge : at the University Press. 



Patristic zoology is a charming and interesting subject, 

 particularly when we give the early Fathers fair consideration 

 — that is, to estimate their writings as in advance of the know- 

 ledge of their time, and not to compare them too strictly with 

 the science of to-day. The late Rev. H. A. Macpherson has 

 given a short appreciation of Turner as an ornithologist in these 

 pages (1901, p. 376), and with our appetites thus whetted we can 

 the better enjoy the fuller information contained in this volume. 



Turner lived in an age when theology was considered the 

 queen of the sciences. Polemical writings on this much hack- 

 neyed subject formed the larger portion of his intellectual occu- 

 pation, as befitted one who had absolutely sat at the feet of 

 Ridley and Latimer, though he preferred quoting Aristotle from 

 the Latin translation of Gaza, the learned papist, who had served 

 under two Popes. Thus natural history formed, even at this 

 time, a meeting-ground for theological doctrinaires, as well as 

 for Mr. Morley's " neutral man of the world." In connection 

 with this translation, Mr. Evans makes a very apposite remark 

 which might well find a place in the " Hibbert Journal " : "Exact 

 transcription of a text was considered by no means necessary in 

 those days ; consequently we find many observations and ex- 

 planations inserted in the text of Aristotle and Pliny which had 

 no place in the original." 



Like our own illustrious Gilbert White's leaning to a theory 

 of the hibernation of Swallows, so did Turner find it impossible 

 to quite break away from the mythical procreation of the Bernicle 

 Goose. Both sought concurrent testimony, and Turner, dis- 

 satisfied with the belief of all the longshore -men of his own 



