214 
NATURE NOTES. 
pitiful of all mortal things. And when I grew up out of the age when boys take 
nests, and became a man, the same intense passionate horror remained with me, 
and whenever selfish men for their own amusement have destroyed homes, or 
trampled under foot the weak and trusting hearts of those whom they have 
pretended to love only to betray, it possesses me utterly — ^just as it used to do 
when, as a boy, I came upon the shreds of moss or grass that told too well of the 
nest that had been built with infinite loving care only to be torn away to give a 
moment’s amusement to a selfish lad. 
MORE BIRD BOOKS.- 
[It is pleasanter to praise than to blame, and we would rather recommend 
than criticise unfavourably books sent to us for review. But in an editorial 
capacity our duty is to give a fair account of such volumes as are sent ; and the 
usefulness of our reviews depends wholly upon their honesty. We say this 
because there are those who seem to think that our duty is either to praise or 
to keep silence. In this view we cannot concur. When a book is sent to us for 
notice, it is presumably so sent because the author or publisher is desirous that 
our opinion of it should be brought before our readers ; and we feel bound to act 
on this assumption. It is manifest that the value of praise would be but slight, 
were it to be dealt out indiscriminately. — Ed. N.N.'\ 
We are at a loss to know what good purpose The Birds of our Islands can 
serve. It aims, we are told in the preface, at being an introduction to the 
subject. But an introduction so full of downright untruths as this is, can do 
little but harm to the young student of ornithology. We are sorry to have to 
say this of a book which is pleasantly written, and has been produced apparently 
with the best intentions. It is not a .systematic account of our birds, but consists 
of six and twenty chapters on such subjects as “Young Birds,’’ “Spring 
Feathers,” “ Hedgerow Nests,” “ Bird Communities,” “Sea Gulls,” “ Birds of 
Prey,” “ Birds of Passage,” “ Birds and Berries.” These chapters should make 
most attractive reading, and the pity is that the young naturalist must lie warned 
against them. But the author, who has had the advantage of extensive “ wander- 
ings in bird-land,” has apparently not taken the trouble to read a trustworthy 
work on British ornithology. It is needless here to review the chapters in 
detail, and it must suffice to notice some of the statements upon which the 
above remarks are founded. There are some who doubt the ability of a 
guillemot to carry its young on its back from the cliffs to the sea ; but we 
believe that no one has previously had the hardihood to say that at night the 
young bird is shuffled on to its parents’ back and taken up to the rocky ledges 
again ! Ptarmigan, we are told, were once plentiful on the heights of Wales 
and Cumberland 1 The little auk is said to visit us in winter in a dress of white 
feathers, only speckled with brown, with leggings of bright yellow ! This state- 
ment is all the more wonderful because a fairly good figure of the bird in winter 
dress (upper parts nearly all black) accompanies it. The merganser is said to 
be clad during winter in a sober brown dress ; whereas it is in summer that the 
male loses its bright colours. And we may add that it is in summer and not 
in spring that male ducks lose their nuptial plumage. It is misle.ading to say 
that many crags and lonely islands round the coast of Scotland and the North of 
Ireland are the summer homes of the gannet, when its known British breeding 
haunts are less than a dozen in number. Nor is it correct to say that here and 
there a pair of great grey shrikes remain to breed with us. The brambling in 
winter is said to be only known to those who live in the north, and to be rare 
even in the south of Yorkshire. A reference to a work on the birds of one of our 
midland or more southern counties would have saved the author from this mistake. 
* The Birds of our Islands, by F. A. Fulcher. London : Andrew Melrose. 
Illustrated, 8vo, pp. 368. Price 3s. fid. 
The Birds of our Country, by tl. E. Stewart, B.A. ; with illustrations by 
A. Thorburn, J. Giacomelli, G. E. Lodge, K. Keyl, and R. Kretchmer. 
London : Digby, Long & Co., 1897. Svo, pp. viii., 397. 
