SHORT NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
[ I 
earliest date I have seen them is May 13, and the latest about 
August 15, and a jaunt on a lovely evening at any time between 
these periods, provided, of course, that the birds are en evidence, 
cannot fail to be a source of satisfaction and pleasure to the 
fancier of this lovely but peculiar genus of the feathered world. 
Croydon. G. F. Ely. 
SHORT NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
A Handbook of the Birds of Great Britain, by R. Rowdier Sharpe, LL.D., 
vol. i., pp. xix., 342, 31 coloured plates. 8vo. London : W. H. Allen and Co., 
1894. The old familiar “ Naturalists’ Library” is to be succeeded by' “ Allen’s 
Naturalists’ Library.” Sir William Jardine, one of the most eminent ornithologists 
of his day, edited the old library, and the proprietors did not allow the reputa- 
tion of the new series to lose anything when they secured the services of Dr. R. 
Rowdier Sharpe, of the Rritish Museum, for editor-in-chief. The first of the four 
volumes (comprising the Passeriformes) on Rritish birds, written by the editor, 
has reached us. It is a handy-book indeed, with a vast amount of information in 
a small space. The young student may be sure of finding the information accu- 
rate and fully up to date, and though the professed Rritish ornithologist may at 
first be inclined to grudge the space on his loaded shelves for another text-book on 
the subject, he will be none the more able to dispense with the valuable informa- 
tion it contains. In a short preface the author reviews the principal modern 
literature of the subject, and deals with that bugbear nomenclature. A useful 
systematic index precedes the body of the work, which is itself exceedingly 
methodical, and will in this respect commend itself especially to the young orni- 
thologist, who will not have to burrow for the particular information he requires. 
One of the first books the present writer possessed, and one to which he now' turns 
w'ith pleasure and profit, was Newman’s edition of Montague’s Ornithological 
Dictionary, and he was often troubled by the unequal treatment of the species 
(perhaps unavoidable then), and the frequent absence of just what he wanted to 
find. The plan of the Handbook is to give a short diagnosis of the orders, families, 
sub-families and genera into which birds have been divided, together with the 
geographical distribution of the species comprised in them, and to discuss each 
species under the headings of description of the plumage, range in and outside the 
Rritish Islands, habits, nests and eggs. The descriptions of the dress worn by 
the sexes at different ages is accompanied by some most valuable “distinction 
marks,” and distinctions between assimilated species are pointed out ; and in the 
account of the ranges we have a notice of allied forms. Some necessary 
synonyms are given. They are especially necessary in this book because 
Dr. Sharpe holds strong views on nomenclature, and while employing such 
names as he believes will ultimately be found to be correct, has at the same 
time used some which look very strange to those familiar with the previous 
works on the subject. For instance, the bird man who in his youth knew the 
long- tailed tit as Parus caudatus and avoiding Mecistura longicaudata followed 
it to Acridnla rosea, now finds it figuring under Aigithahis vagans ! And we 
find that the wren is no more to be a Troglodytes, but an Anothttra ! Dr. Sharpe 
is, moreover, an advocate of the “ Scomber-scomber ” principle, and we have 
Merula mernla, Coro ne cor one, &c., &c. Doubtless he is right, and that it is 
“better to face these changes fairly and squarely, and by their adoption, if they 
are found to be correct, to introduce an uniform system of nomenclature on both 
sides of the globe.” If such a thing be possible, then “speed the time!” Rut 
it seems to us that even then we should have no guarantee that the names as 
settled should remain unchanged in future. 
The chromolithographic plates (three of eggs) are those of the old library 
with the exception of five prepared by Mr. Keulenians, which, far in advance of 
the others and useful as they are, would have been more so had the reproduction 
