6 CHARLES DIXON'S WORKS (Conlinued). 
THE MIGEATION OF BIEDS. 
An Attempt to reduce Avian Season-Flight to Iiaw. 
Crown 8vo, 6s. 
Dr. Andrew Wilson says :— " Among recently published scientific books, there 
are two which I think worth recomnipnding to the notice of my readers. The first of 
these works is one on 'The Migration of Birds,' by C. Dixon. It deals in an exhaustive 
manner with migration at large, and cannot fail to interest all who, in any fashion, make 
ornithology a study." 
The Times says: — "Mr. Charles Dixon, than whom, perhaps, no more scientific 
ornithologist exists, formulates a theory to account for a phenomf^non which has hitherto 
relused to yield up its secret. He first dismisses rather contemptuously the view of those 
naturalists who ascribe migration to instinct. For 'instinct' lie would substitute 'habit.' 
The superiority of Mr. Di.xon's theory really resides in this, that he offers a rational 
expliuation of the origin of tliis 'instinct' or 'hereditary impulse.' . . . The plausible 
theory which Mr. Dixon propounds is illustrated with abundance of ornithological learn ng, 
and a multitude of examples which, he tells us, might have been indefinitely increased. 
Apart from his speculations, ]\Ir. Dixon's book is a most interesting monograph upon the 
facts and phenomena of bird migration, and we can hardly doubt that, whether his theories 
win acceptance or not, the volume in which he sets them forth will become part of the 
necessary equipment for future explorers in this department of ornithology." 
IDLE HOUES WITH NATUEE. 
With Frontispiece. Crown 8vo, 6s. 
Black and White says : — " The title of JMr. Charles Dixon's ' Idle Hours with 
Nature' is a somewhat exasperating misnomer. So far from being idle, he is one of the 
busiest observers of nature since White of Selborne wrote, or the modern White, Richard 
Jefferies. . . . George Eliot used to say that anglers could not catch fish because they 
would not study the subjectivity of fishes. Mr. Dixon studies the subjectivity of the wild 
birds and beasts in a way that has never been done before, and his book is profoundly 
interesting in consequence. He enters into the minds and moods of the creatures of the 
air, large and small, and reasons from his observations. He tells us w-hat the Spotted Fly- 
Catcher must see and feel an 1 desire as it flits on its long migration from the Sahara to its 
home in our English apple orchards ; and he analyzes the character of cormorants, petrels, 
and eagles as carefully and conclusively as a novelist does his heroes and villains. Mr. 
Dixon contends that his studies have an ethical vaiue beyond their scientific one. There 
can be no doubt about it — they take us out of ourselves." 
ANNALS OF BIED LIFE: 
A Year-Book of British Ornithology. 
With Illustrations by 0. Whymper. Crown 8vo, 7s. 6d. 
The Speaker says: — "Delightful book. ... In this volume five or six chapters 
are devoted, in turn, to spring, summer, autumn, and winter ; and everywhere, without 
thrusting upon us the dry details of science or the jargon of the schools, a minute and 
pleasing description is given of the way of birds, their mijjration, and the gipsy kind of 
life they lead." 
The Leeds Mercury says: — "Full of restful charm of rural life, written with 
considerable ability and a real enthusiasm for the subject. The work is the outcome of 
tweiity years' close study and observation of wild life in woods and fi -lds, and, beginning 
with spring, it takes the reader right through the year, and shows him at each season the 
various movements and habits of the birds. . . . The book is a fresh, artless, and minute 
description of Nature at first hand." 
