REVIEWS AND EXCHANGES 
On Plain and Peak : Sporting and other Sketches of Bohemia and Tyrol. By 
Randolph LI. Hodgson. Illustrated by Iler Serene Highness Princess Mary 
of Thurn and Taxis, and from photographs. (Archibald Constable & Co., 
1898, 7s. 6d.) 
Tins lavishly illustrated book — it contains no less than thirty-six plates, com- 
prising several interesting views of chamois and roe-deer will, no doubt, he of 
interest to gunners. There is little in the series of papers but records of 
experiences whilst stalking. Perhaps the one redeeming paragraph is this which 
concludes a somewhat repulsive chapter entitled “ My First Stag ” : 
“ But as I looked at my prize, lying lifeless among the pine trees, with the 
soft eyes fast glazing, and the limbs, that had once borne him so swiftly, still 
and stark — was there not beneath my feelings of joy and pride at the death of 
this — my first stag — a tinge of sadness a little ghost of a feeling of something 
like remorse ? I think so ! ” 
In “Some Shooting Statistics’’ that Mr. Hodgson gives from official sources, 
it looks strange to see 12,837 thrushes, shot in Hungary in 1894, and 647 
marmots, shot in Austria in 1892, figuring as game. It seems regrettable to see 
8,144 chamois in the same list as the latter ; and, though owls are said to be 
spared on most estates in Bohemia in 1895, 25,312 hawks, falcons, buzzards, & c., 
were killed in that country in the year, and over 29,000 owls and 100,000 hawks 
appear in the list of Austrian “ vermin ” for 1892. 
Bird Neighbors : an Introductory Acquaintance ‘with one hundred and fifty birds 
commonly found in the Gardens , Meadows and Woods about our Homes. By 
Neltje Blanchan. With Introduction by John Burroughs, and 52 coloured 
plates. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1898. Price 12s. 6d. 
We cannot help thinking that Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston & Co. have 
been most unwise in issuing this work under the above title with no indication of 
its purely American character beyond the spelling of “ Neighbors,” the fact of the 
introduction being by John Burroughs, and a minute “ Printed in New York, 
U.S.A.” on the back of the title-page. Mr. Burroughs is guilty of hyperbole 
when he writes that the reader “ will find these colored plates quite as helpful as 
those of Audubon or Wilson,” and Miss Blanchan's preface appears almost disin- 
genuous when she writes that “ the specimens examined and described were not 
the faded ones in our museums, but live birds in their fresh spring plumage, 
studied afield,” seeing that the illustrations are obviously reproductions from 
photographs of stuffed— and not very’ well stuffed — specimens, w'ith “faked up” 
photographers’ backgrounds. The book is not intended to be complete or scien- 
tific : birds of prey and water fowl are omitted, 150 species being only a small 
fraction of the avifauna of New York ; and though lists of “bird families,” birds 
arranged according to their habitats, their seasons and their size, are given, the 
main classification adopted is based upon “color.” The text is mainly a 
compilation ; and, with the plates, may w-ell serve a useful purpose in New York, 
as affording a cheap means of obtaining a bowing acquaintance w’ith the 
commoner birds. The illustrations are good examples of the three-colour 
process, and when we see the moderate price at which so pretty a book can be 
produced, we wish we had a similar work dealing with our bird neighbours here. 
A Dictionary of Bird Notes, to which is appended a Glossary of Popular Local and 
Old-fashioned Synonyms of British Birds. By Chas. Louis Hett. Jack- 
son’s, Market Place, Brigg, 1898. Price 2S. 6d. 
Our letter bag makes us well aware of the interest taken by Selbornians in the 
notes of birds, so that we welcome most enthusiastically Mr. Hett’s excellent little 
pocket manual. Strongly bound, with rounded corners, and printed on good 
paper, but only on one side of the page, so that each alternate page is available 
for the reader’s own observations, its “ get up ” reflects as great credit upon a 
provincial publisher as does its unassuming but business-like contents upon its 
author. The bulk of the little volume (52 pages) is occupied by the dictionary of 
notes in two parts, viz., note— bird, bird- note; the glossary of English syno- 
nyms occupies 37 more pages, printed in double columns ; then follows a numbered 
list of the 376 birds accepted as British by the British Ornithologists’ Union in 
