210 
NATURE NOTES. 
very delightful study of the birds in all their relations to human beings, whether 
friends or enemies, bio one can read this paper without feeling that Mr. Hudson 
has a streak of poetry in him, and that the framing of a prose sentence is to him 
what the making of a verse is to a poet. It is rarely that we find the feeling of 
an artist so admirably combined with observation and knowledge. 
The next paper, “ Exotic Birds for Britain,” will perhaps appeal more forcibly 
to those who believe our most beautiful species to be fast becoming extinct, than it 
does to one who, like myself, is unable to accept this doctrine. Seeing no real 
reason to believe that kingfisher, goldfinch, or woodpecker is likely to fail us (see 
p. 97), I should hesitate to welcome exotic birds whose conduct in this country 
we could not foretell with certainty. Then follow several short chapters, of which 
the tw'o best are, to my thinking, “ Chanticleer ”and “ In a Garden.” I will not 
anticipate the reader’s pleasure by telling him what these are all about. The book 
is one to be bought, for it will be found possible to read it many times over with 
pleasure and profit. I will only add that I am glad to see from his last paper that 
blr. Hudson knows and admires Courthope’s “ Paradise of Birds,” a poem which 
every true Selbornian should know almost by heart. 
A Dictionary of Birds, by Professor Newton (and other writers). Parts l and 
2 . We have here the first half of an expansion of the series of articles con- 
tributed by Professor Newton to the last edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. 
When completed, the work will cover the whole vast field of ornithology, and 
will probably be the most useful and accurate compendium of the subject in any 
language. I am quite incompetent to criticise it, and Nature Notes is not the 
periodical for such a criticism, but I am certain that it should be on the shelves of 
every library of natural history, and that every ornithologist should have it on his 
own shelf if he can afford it. Fortunately Messrs. Black have been able to pub- 
lish this immense mass of information at a very cheap price. There are to be 
four parts, each costing ys. 6d. Everyone who buys it will be grateful to the 
veteran zoologist and his fellow-workers, both English and American, for articles 
written so lucidly that even the most difficult subjects are brought within the reach 
of an amateur’s intelligence — if, that is, he be willing to forego for a while the 
ordinary “ book about birds,” and brace his mind with a little real study. 
The Birds of London, by PI. K. Swann. (Swan, .Sonnenschein & Co.) 2s. 
This seems to be a useful little handbook of the birds that may be looked for in 
London and the neighbourhood. It is largely based on Mr. Harting’s excellent 
Birds of Middlesex, which will soon be thirty years old, and I think it can hardly 
be said that it shows any great advance on that valuable work. It is, however, 
a convenient little volume, and can be carried easily in the pocket by anyone 
who rambles about London suburbs in search of birds. 
W. Warde Fowler. 
GILBERT WHITE’S SELBORNE PLANTS. 
NDER this heading I have published in the Journal of 
i Botanv for October a list of the plants observed by 
I White at Selborne. That periodical is seen by very 
few of the readers of N.\ture Notes, and as this 
should be regarded as the home of all information connected 
with \Miite, I reprint here the introductory matter which tells, 
among other things, ho\v the interesting information came into 
my hands. For the complete list the Journal of Botany must be 
consulted. 
“ Among the omissions from our Bibliographical List of British 
and Irish Botanists, none is less justifiable than that of Gilbert 
White. Yet at the time w'e did not think his Letter xli. to 
Barrington, dealing with the ‘ more rare ’ plants of Selborne, 
