240 



The Scottish Naturalist. 



AN ILLUSTRATED MANUAL OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



BY HOWARD SAUNDERS F.L.S., F.Z.S., &C. (GURNEY & JACKSON, LONDON). 



In this Journal, in July, 1888, we had occasion to notice the issue of parts 

 1 and 2 of this work in terms of praise ; and now, on the completion of the 

 book we gladly take the opportunity of again commending it to the notice of 

 our readers, assured that an inspection of it will be its best advocate to favour. 

 The twenty parts in which it was published, and which appeared with unfailing 

 regularity each month since its commencement, together form a handsome 

 volume of 750 pages, illustrated with 367 admirable woodcuts of the birds, 

 mostly reproductions from Yarrell's works, and 3 maps explanatory of distribu- 

 tion and migration. Two pages of letter-press have been devoted to each 

 species, which necessarily leads to somewhat unequal treatment of the species 

 in some cases ; yet the information with regard to almost all is full and up to 

 the date of publication of the part, while an appendix affords the means of 

 adding the facts regarding each that have come to light during the past year. 

 Under each species are given the description of the adult sexes and of the 

 immature conditions, the distribution in Britain of the resident and migratory 

 species, the various occurrences in Britain of the rarer visitors, and the dis- 

 tribution of each species beyond our own country, as well as points of special 

 interest in the habits of each. 



The genera are characterized fully in an introduction, published with the 

 concluding part of the volume. It is to be regretted that the families also are 

 not defined in this introduction, instead of being merely named. In these 

 latter days the systems of ornithological classification have been so changed that 

 it is somewhat difficult for anyone not a specialist in ornithology to follow the 

 later developments-, and to obtain a clear conception of the basis of classifica- 

 tion without direct reference to books that are not very likely to be within 

 easy reach of those for whom this Manual is intended, and by whom it will b* 

 most made use of. 



But despite this omission the Illustrated Manual of British Birds musx 

 take high rank as the most recent and thoroughly reliable work upon the 

 subject of which it treats, while its price puts it within the reach of many to 

 whom such works as Yarrell's History of British Birds are inaccessible. 



THE BUTTERFLY, ITS LIFE-HISTORY AND ATTRIBUTES, By 

 John Stuttard. 



"VVe cannot congratulate the author of this little work on his success, 11 the 

 first fruits of studies in Entomology," or recommend him to persevere as an 

 author until an acquaintance with his subject and with the meanings of words 

 can justify him in the effort to instruct others, however sincere may be his 

 desire to do so. For the present the "strong mental stimulus" appears to 

 have proved too much for his mental digestion ; and the product "offered to 

 that wider constituency who can only hear with their eyes what others have 

 seen with their ears " is apt to remind one of Mark Twain's well-known 

 English- German history of the unfortunate washerwoman's toe. 



