WORDSWORTH AND HIS BIRDS. 
95 
of the pen and reader’s errors need correction — Mongeese, Govall, Huguns, 
Balli Pass, Cana, &c. — and above all, the important omission of an index should 
be supplied. 
In a necessarily short notice of a work crowded with detail it is impossible to 
make extracts, but we draw the attention of readers to the story of Garibaldi the 
poodle, p. 36, vol. i; the house-building caterpillar, p. 120; the spider’s web, 
p. 150; the descriptions of Niagara, California, India, Japan and Borneo, which 
are especially full of little touches true to life. Every page of this work will lead 
to the desire either to see the countries and their inhabitants, or to obtain more 
information concerning them. 
George A. and Theresa Musgrave. 
WORDSWORTH AND HIS BIRDS. 
“ When all the greater evils of life shall have been removed, Mr. Mill thinks 
the human race is to find its chief enjoyment in reading Wordsworth’s poetry.”* 
This happy period, indeed, has not yet arrived, but the steadily growing apprecia- 
tion of Wordsworth may perhaps be regarded as an indication that we are pre- 
paring for it. Every Selbornian must rejoice at this ; and it is indeed matter for 
congratulation that we have now presented to our choice three delightful little 
pocket volumes, ranging in price from threepence to half-a-crown, containing some 
of the last poetry of “ him who uttered nothing base.” Messrs. Cassell give us in 
their “ National Library ” Selected Poems from Wordsworth (3d. and 6d.), and we 
trust they will make similar selections from other poets. i\Ir. Walter Scott issues 
The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth {Selected) (is.), in his “Canterbury 
Poets,” while the Poems of Wordsivorth (2s 6d. net.) chosen and edited by 
Matthew Arnold for Messrs. Macmillan’s “Golden Treasury” Series, has long 
been considered a model for works of the kind, and has a special value on account 
of the admirable prefatory essay contributed by the editor. Every lover of poetry, 
every devotee of Nature, every Selbornian should have one of these volumes 
in his pocket when he goes for his summer holiday. If he is worthy of any of 
these titles, however, the little book will not long remain there undisturbed. 
Mr. Wintringham’s volume on The Birds of Words 7 oorth{\\\\\<SsdmiO'Ci &Co., l 3 s.) 
is certainly not a book for the pocket, although its physical lightness compared 
with its bulk is a noteworthy feature. It would be cruel to suggest “ Love’s 
Labour Lost ” as a second title, and yet it seems to us more accurately descriptive 
than the one chosen by the author : for the birds of Wordsworth are but the “ half- 
pennyworth of bread” to the “intolerable deal of sack” supplied by Mr. 
Wintringham. When the delightful author of English as She is Spoke, said : “I 
see you have a very bad style,” he might have been thinking of Mr. Wintringham^ 
The introduction abounds in sentences of this kind : “ Wordsworth’s knowledge 
of British birds is rich, varied, and far above the average possessed by bards, and 
furthermore he is transcendent. If his predecessors were ready to restrike chords 
in vibration, his followers have been quite as willing to prey upon his ideas.” “ He 
was not a plagiarist emphatically, yet provided the pre-author’s line of thought ran 
clear and cleanly, possessing no degrading laudations of sensuality or vulgarness, 
he was as re.ady to retravel it as later poets have been to sing again the pure 
conceptions his mind has produced.” There are 420 (beautifully printed) pages of 
this kind of thing, interspersed, indeed, with snatches of music from the poet’s 
lyre, but “ mainly consisting of (sentences) like these,” in which Mr. Wintringham 
brings together apparently all that he can remember about birds, but (strangely 
enough) not a “ complete list of Wordsworth’s bird references.” 
If “ you may know a man by the company he keeps,” it is equally true that 
you may judge a writer by the authorities he quotes, and by those he omits. 
■Mr. Wintringham thanks— or rather “expresses gratification for the use of,” 
among other works — Dr. Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable — that mar- 
Tht New Repuhlic, book i., chapter 3, with a reference to J. S. Mill's Autobiography. 
