The Land Birds in and around St Andrews The Migration of British Birds, including their Post-Glacial Emigration, as Traced by the Application of a New Law of Dispersal Heligoland as an Ornithological Observatory, the Result of Fifty Years' Experience A Hand-book to the Game Birds The Land-birds and Game-birds of New England, with Descriptions of the Birds, their Nests and Eggs, their Habits and Notes Wild England of To-day, and the Wild Life in it The Pheasant: Natural History

Abstract

NO section of vertebrate zoology has in this country attracted more amateur disciples than ornithology; and the literature of perhaps no other group has been burdened by so many useless contributions by writers who, possessing not only little literary qualification for the task, but a very superficial knowledge of the subject, rush into print, assuming that, because they are able to see, they are capable of observing, which are two very different things. Among the number of such contributions must be included a volume of 563 closely-printed octavo pages on “The Land Birds about St. Andrews,” by Mr. George Bruce. On the book opening of its own accord at p. 44, the heading of “The Griffon Vulture” caught the eye and surprised us not a little; for the addition of this majestic bird to the avifauna of Fifeshire was quite new to us. On consulting the title-page, however, we discovered that the work was of wider scope than indicated on the cover, and included “a condensed history of the British land birds, with extracts from the poets and observations and anecdotes on natural history.” “The single occurrence of a solitary specimen” in Ireland, recorded by Yarrell, is apparently sufficient excuse for this page of padding. A carefully-written account of the birds of Fifeshire would have been welcomed to our lists of local faunas; but with so many excellent histories of British birds in existence (such as that by Mr. Howard Saunders, to mention only one), there was hardly a call, one would have thought, for another, except it were commended by some special feature or novel method of treatment. The special features of this book appear to consist in the superabundant extracts from the poets—more or less, generally less, àpropos—cuttings from the local newspapers, and quotations from many other sources equally authoritative. Although the “history,” such as it is, is very condensed, and not always, to be taken on trust, and the anecdotes poor and pointless, there are, nevertheless, in the book not a few observations which we are confident will prove new to most ornithologists. Of these we cull a few, and refer our readers, who desire to dig deeper, to the book itself for others.

The Land Birds in and around St. Andrews.

George Bruce. (Dundee: John Leng, 1895.)

The Migration of British Birds, including their Post-Glacial Emigration, as Traced by the Application of a New Law of Dispersal.

Charles Dixon. (London: Chapman and Hall, 1895.)

Heligoland as an Ornithological Observatory, the Result of Fifty Years' Experience.

Heinrich Gatke. Translated by Rudolph Rosenstock, M.A.Oxon. (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1895.)

A Hand-book to the Game Birds.

W. R. Ogilvie-Grant. Vol. i. Sand-grouse, Partridges, Pheasants. (London: Allen and Co., 1895.)

The Land-birds and Game-birds of New England, with Descriptions of the Birds, their Nests and Eggs, their Habits and Notes.

H. D. Minot. With illustrations. Second edition. Edited by William Brewster. (New York: Houghton and Co., 1895.)

Wild England of To-day, and the Wild Life in it.

C. J. Cornish. (London: Seeley and Co., 1895.)

The Pheasant: Natural History.

By the Rev. H. A. Macpherson. Shooting. By A. J. Stuart-Wortley. Cooking. By Alexander Innes Shand. (The Fur and Feather Series.) (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1895.)