NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 195 



British Bird Life ; being popular sketches of every species of bird 

 now regularly nesting in the British Isles. By W. Percival 

 Westell. T. Fisher Unwin. 



Mr. Westell is becoming quite a prolific writer, and it is 

 probable that this is the best book he has yet written. But does 

 it supply a want ? Sir Herbert Maxwell, in an introduction to 

 the volume, appraises its value as "one which may be of lasting 

 profit and pleasure to children reared in great towns." If this 

 is so, the book will not have been written in vain. 



It is somewhat remarkable in the domains of British ornitho- 

 logy and entomology, that the study of our birds or butterflies 

 and moths should create such a sudden responsibility for writing 

 another book on the subject. And when this resolve takes the 

 form, as it usually does, of producing a handbook relating to all 

 the members of our avian or lepidopteral fauna, compilation by 

 necessity becomes the pronounced factor ; for who can record 

 sufficient original observation, or produce more new material 

 than would occupy but few pages indeed ? Now the art of 

 judicious compilation is not a common gift of the gods ! It 

 demands encyclopaedic reading with the judicial faculty of esti- 

 mating what to ignore, what to pass by with a reference, and 

 what to detail ; it must also be abreast of the latest facts and 

 records. Acting on this standard, it is not hypercritical to say 

 that much might be taken out of this book as somewhat jejune, 

 and much might well be put in the place of such lacunae. 

 According to Mr. Westell, " Works on so-called British birds are 

 many, but books solely devoted to those species which regularly 

 nest is our country are very few," and he has thought it well to 

 add one more to the number. We have carefully read its 

 pages, which are interesting, and contain what to some may be 

 new ; they also exhibit the writing of one who truly loves his 

 birds and their environment ; the illustrations are unequal in 

 value, the photographs taken direct from nature contrasting very 

 favourably with some " original drawings " ; while the opinion 

 of its sponsor that it may " be of lasting profit and pleasure 

 to children reared in great towns," is, we venture to think, a 

 fair and candid judgment. 



