8618 



Notices of New Books. 



" To meet this want it is proposed to publish a series of such 

 manuals for all the vertebrated animals of India, containing characters 

 of all the classes, orders, families and genera, and descriptions of all 

 the species of all mammals, reptiles and fishes found in India." 



This is indeed a va§t and ambitious design ; and the result will be 

 invaluable if the work be executed in the same spirit in which it is 

 conceived. The first volume, commencing with the vultures and ending 

 with the thrushes, is now complete, and is prefaced by an intro- 

 duction to the study of Ornithology, which contains a vast amount of 

 useful and well-digested information ; touching lightly on the views 

 of Darwin as to the origin of species, on the fantastic arrangements of 

 MacLeay and Vigors, and on the identity, parallelism or affinity of 

 closely-resembling species inhabiting localities widely separated. 

 There are also a few wholesome and sound paragraphs on the 

 existence of a " special design" in creation, " a certain system " that 

 may be studied with great advantage. The observations on arrange- 

 ments are well and clearly written, the author entirely ignoring my 

 binary arrangement of birds into Gymnogens and Hesthogens, yet 

 making a separate order of the pigeons, because their gymnogenous 

 character will not allow of their association with the hesthogenous 

 game birds. But let the author speak for himself : as examples of his 

 style I select the following detached and isolated passages : — 



Falco peregrinalor. — " The shahin falcon is found throughout the 

 whole of India from the Himalayas to the extreme South, extending 

 into Affghanistan and Western Asia. It is, however, far from being 

 a common bird. Its habitual resorts are high rocky hills in the 

 neighbourhood of jungle and forest-land, whether in a low or moun- 

 tainous country, though the latter is always preferred. In the Car- 

 natic, which is nearly devoid of forest, the shahin is but seldom met 

 with, yet there are certain spots even there where individuals of the 

 species resort to after the breeding-season, being chiefly young birds, 

 and they are known to breed in various parts of the range of Eastern 

 Ghauts. Its habits in a wild state vary somewhat according to the 

 kind of country frequented. If a denizen of a forest, it watches on 

 some lofty tree at the skirts of a glade, or hovers over it, ready to 

 pounce on any unlucky bird that ventures to cross. In more open 

 country it is necessitated to take a wider circuit in search of its 

 prey, and is of course much more on the wing. Such birds are more 

 highly prized for training than forest-bred birds, which are therefore 

 seldom sought for. This falcon destroys large quantities of game, 

 partridges, quails, &c, and is said to be very partial to paro- 



