SOME BIRD BOOKS. 
209 
hobbies took their place. They have left many questions about 
themselves unanswered, but they have caused me to feel a deeper 
permanent interest in all their tribe. Spiders to me are lovely 
yet: 
I only have relinquished one delight, 
To live beneath their more habitual sway. 
Cape Town. F. C. Kolbe. 
SOME BIRD BOOKS. 
Ornithology in Relation to Horticulture and Agriculture, by various writers. 
Edited by John Watson. (W. II. Allen & Co.) 4s. 6d. I heartily recommend 
this little book to the attention of Selbornians, and I am confident that, were he 
alive now, Gilbert White would do the same. Anyone who reads his book care- 
fully will find that he had a strong conviction that the study of natural history 
should be turned to practical account. The Selborne Society cannot do better 
work than in encouraging and organising the collection of facts calculated to 
throw light on such questions as are discussed in this book ; it cannot live and 
prosper on sentiment alone. It braces the energies of the naturalist, and acts 
on him like a wholesome tonic, if he can feel that he is gathering some knowledge 
which is not only interesting to himself but likely to be useful to his country. 
Facts are what is wanted — actual recorded facts bearing on the amount of good 
or harm done by birds and other animals to the crops which are the food of man. 
The book before us is entirely devoted to the food of certain species of birds, 
and in that large field of observation it can only be reckoned as a beginning. The 
subject is a very difficult one, and, as Mr. Wood showed us in The Farmer's Friends 
and Foes, an ornithologist who would handle it properly should also be an ento- 
mologist. But everyone may observe and collect facts for himself, even without 
any extensive knowledge to start with. lie should not attempt to reason on his 
facts, or he will be sure to arrive at misleading conclusions, but after some time they 
may be submitted to a recognised authority, and will be sure to be found useful. 
He will find this volume a convenient guide to start with ; at the same time it will 
show him that facts must be more widely and systematically collected if they are 
to lead to safe conclusions. I notice, for example, that in the case against the 
sparrow, one or two writers do not seem to take into account the difference between 
various parts of the country in respect of the density of the sparrow population. 
I am far from being an advocate of the sparrow, but I am pretty sure that any 
wholesale destruction of the species throughout the country would be a misfortune. 
I might, by the way, suggest to Selbornians one very simple question on which 
they might bring a large amount of evidence to bear with very little trouble. 
During future summers let every member observe and record the number of martins 
that may within his observation be evicted from their nests by sparrows ; in this 
way we should gather some valuable facts together. 
I will not go in detail into the chapters of the book ; as they are by several 
hands, and of very different value, it would be a little invidious to do so. I 
will content myself with the remark that the paper on the Rook by Mr. O. V. 
Aplin is a model of what such a paper should be, viz., at once readable and in- 
teresting, and well stored with facts. Mr. Aplin does not waste words, nor 
indulge in shallow sentiment, but in the true spirit of Gilbert White he tikes to 
make sure of his facts, and to record them in a straightforward and simple w’ay. 
Birds in a Village, by W. If. Hudson. (Chapman & Hall.) 7s. 6d. Mr. 
Hudson, who has already delighted naturalists, both professional and amateur, 
with two books on the birds and beasts of South .America, has now collected some 
papers about the inhabitants of English fields and lanes. They are written in a 
charming style, are full of thought and fancy as well as fact, and are none the less 
worth reading because their writer does not seem to be quite as much at home here 
as on the Pampas. The first and longest, which gives the volume its name, is a 
