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'Review



REVIEW


A GUIDE TO THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA


We have been favoured with a copy of Mr. Neville W. Cayley’s

book, What Bird is That, which has just appeared in its second edition,

the first apparently having been sold out soon after publication, which

is not surprising seeing what a very excellent book it is and the

ridiculously low price at which it is offered.


Our members are now familiar with Mr. Cayley’s work as a bird

artist, and it is greatly owing to his skill as a faithful delineator of birds

that the excellence of his book is due, for it contains a coloured figure

of every one of the many hundreds of birds of Australia. There are

thirty-six coloured plates, each containing between twenty and thirty

figures of birds and each of these is extraordinarily faithful to life

considering the necessarily small size of some of them. These coloured

illustrations render a detailed description of each species unnecessary,

and in fact enable one to identify any particular species much more

readily than any amount of printed matter would do. And the letter-

press is sufficient; a third of a page or so to each species, giving the

trivial and scientific names, derivation of the latter, distribution,

notes on the habits, description of the nests and eggs. There are

293 pages of letterpress and a good index.


This book is primarily intended for the field naturalist and so the

arrangement of the species is not in the orthodox method of classifi¬

cation, but, for the most part they are grouped in habitats, such as :

“ Birds of the Brushes and Big Scrubs,” “ Birds of the Open Forest,”

and so on. But although we cannot all go and see these birds in their

wild habitat as most of us would wish we could, there are many of our

members who know many of the Australian birds in life here in our

aviaries, and to all such this excellent book of Mr. Neville Cayley’s

will appeal.


Although published in Australia (Angus and Robertson, Limited,

89 Castlereagh Street, Sydney), What Bird is That may be obtained

from The Australian Book Company, 16 Farringdon Avenue, Farringdon

Street, London, E.C. 4, at the price of 12s. 6 d.



