Abstract
COMPLETE originality in mode of treatment, perfection in literary style, absolute fidelity to nature in the illustrations, coupled with immaculate accuracy in regard to nomenclature and other technical matters, would appear to be the only possible justifications for adding a new one to the long list of popular works on British birds. If it be asked whether the volume before us fulfils these conditions, there will be no great difficulty in framing a reply. In the first place, the mode of treatment is by no means original; while the following sentence from P. 53, “When talking to Lady Farren, of Bealings House, Suffolk, she told me that her family had had remarkable intimacies with wild birds,” can scarcely be regarded either as a sample of elegance in diction or of accuracy in grammar. As specimens of what illustrations, so far as regards colour, ought not to be, we may cite the figure of the bee-eater in the plate facing p. 16, and that of the kingfisher on the one opposite p. 32. As instances of technical inaccuracy, for which there is no excuse, we may quote the following (among other) misspellings of scientific names, viz., (p. 20) Matacilla for Motacilla, (p. 29) Musicapa for Muscicapa, (p. 54) Cocothraustes for Coccothraustes, (p. 104) Dafilia for DafXa, and (p. 129) Acanthus for Acanthis, the latter error being the more inexcusable from the fact that the name is correctly spelt on an earlier page. If further reference to inaccuracies be required, we may contrast the statement on p. 140, to the effect that in the index the various species are assigned to their respective orders and families, with the index itself, where in many cases the subfamily, in place of the family, is given.
Birds in their Seasons.
By J. A. Owen. Pp. vi + 145; plates. (London: G. Routledge and Sons, Ltd., 1904.) Price 2s. 6d. net.
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L., R. Birds in their Seasons . Nature 70, 600 (1904). https://doi.org/10.1038/070600a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/070600a0