680 Recently published Ornithological Works. 
which the county may be divided, namely the central plain, 
the hill country of the east, and the Wirral peninsula and 
marshes of the Dee, are well described ; and in spite of the 
spread of population on the Lancashire side, coupled with the 
inevitable reclamation of marsh-land, it is clear that plenty 
of wild country is still left for the ornithologist in Cheshire. 
In number of species the county is not very rich—only 222 ; 
but these are all genuine, and there has been no attempt to 
swell the list. The fact is that Cheshire lies too far to the 
west for some migrants, while it is yet a little too far east 
for the inferior line of passage which passes down the west 
coast of Great Britain and crosses the Irish Sea by Wigton- 
shire, Anglesea, and the Isle of Man. The illustrations are 
pretty, the bibliography forms a good feature, and the index 
is copious; hut the map is hardly up to the standard of the 
rest of the book. 
108. Be Kai/s ‘ Bird-Gods.’ 
[Bird-Gods by Charles de Kay. With an Accompaniment of Decora¬ 
tions by George Wharton Edwards. London: Harry R. Allenson. 
1 vol. 8vo. 250 pp.] 
We have received a copy of this curious book with a 
request that it may be noticed in ‘The Ibis/ It is difficult 
to pick out the thread of the author's ideas from his 
remarks, for these wander into all sorts of subjects that 
are quite unfamiliar to plain ornithologists. Perhaps the 
subjoined extract from the preface will serve to explain 
the purport of the volume :— 
“I follow in mythology and epic poetry and legends the 
traces of certain birds, the Eagle, the Swan, the Wood¬ 
pecker, the Cuckoo, the Owl, the Peacock, the Dove, and 
try to show how their peculiarities and habits, observed by 
primitive man with the keenness of savages, have laid the 
foundation for certain elements in various religions and 
mythologies, and sometimes furnished, through the peculi¬ 
arities of the creature's habits or character, the skeleton plots 
on which a host of legends and tragedies has been built by 
the imagination of poet-priests and poet-historians of the 
early days." 
