ornithologist's text-book. 37 



Treatise on British Song Birds, by Patrick Syme, 

 Esq. 8vo. 16s., or 12mo. 12s. Edinburgh. 1823. 



Syme's Treatise on British Song Birds is an 

 excellent and useful little work, " including ob- 

 servations on the natural habits of song birds, their 

 manner of incubation, &c, with remarks on the 

 treatment of the young and management of the old 

 birds in a domestic state." The plan of the volume 

 is good, and well executed. It is embellished by 

 fifteen engravings, coloured or uncoloured, which 

 are generally good. We think, however, that the 

 author might have included many other British 

 song birds worthy of notice, especially as the 

 Spotted Starling (Sturniis varius, Meyer) — which 

 can scarcely be considered a songster—has found 

 a place in his excellent Song Birds. 



British Warblers, by Robert Sweet, F. L. S. 

 Simpkin and Marshall. London. 1823—1832. 

 8vo. 16s. 6d. 



When first we saw the British Warblers adver- 

 tised, and noticed in the Magazine of Natural 

 History, we expected to have seen a complete 

 Monograph of that most lovely of all families, the 

 SylviadaB : — so far, however, is this from being the 

 case, that not near all the British species are in- 

 cluded in it. The figures are in general very bad, 

 especially that of the Brake Nightingale (Philo- 

 mela luscinia, Swains.), and the descriptions short 

 and meagre in the extreme. The figure of the 

 Garrulous Fauvet (Ficedula garrula, Blyth) is 

 somewhat more characteristic than the rest; but 

 while the accompanying flower (a lilac) has all the 

 freshness of Nature, the bird has evidently the 

 roughness of a bird long kept in confinement. It 



D 



