84 



THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



The Sportsman' 8 British Bird Book. By B. Lydekker. 

 Rowland Ward, Limited. 



In writing a book on British Birds Mr. Lydekker has struck 

 new ground, for birds are rather outside his usual theme, while 

 his treatment of the subject is a departure from the sameness of 

 the orthodox path. The title of the book is explained in the 

 text : " Written more expressly to meet the needs of the sports- 

 man and the amateur rather than the requirements of the 

 scientific ornithologist." Taxonomy is therefore treated as of 

 secondary importance, and groups are used rather than families, 

 the volume commencing with a description of " Game-birds," 

 followed by " Pigeons," " Rail Tribe," " Crane Group," " Plover 

 Group," and so on ; but the text is full and informative to the 

 highest degree, and the reader may here acquire a knowledge of 

 the birds themselves, which after all is perhaps more important 

 than their classification. For means of identification the nume- 

 rous half-tone illustrations are as good as, if not better than, 

 most we have met with, though we are told that in the great 

 majority of instances they have " been photographed under the 

 personal superintendence of Mr. Rowland Ward from specimens 

 mounted at his studios in Piccadilly for this particular pur- 

 pose." But they have the great merit of exhibiting essential 

 and specific characters, some of them being taken from speci- 

 mens lying on their backs when it is necessary to show fully the 

 markings and pattern of the under side, so that the " sportsman 

 and the amateur " have thus a facilitation in recognition of 

 species, apart from the very concise descriptions given in the 

 text. Great pains have been taken to describe the full geo- 

 graphical distribution of the British Birds, and, combined 

 with other information, this volume — outside the classificatory 

 arrangement — may be accepted as one of the best books of 



