(1) A Bird Collector's Medley (2) Birds of Britain (3) A Book of Birds

Abstract

(1) MR. ARNOLD has been known for several years past in the bird world as an enthusiastic shore-shooter who has been lucky enough in recent years to secure examples of several migratory birds which have very rarely been known to straggle to these shores, and, indeed, to add two species to the British list. He very ably justifies the killing of these rare migrants on the grounds that they are abnormal wanderers which would never settle in England, and adds that it seems far better that they should be carefully preserved for the benefit of those who would otherwise never see them rather than be observed through glasses by one individual for the space of perhaps half an hour at the outside. His introductory chapter is mainly taken up by a forcible defence uf the amateur collector, who, he very truly says, is abused by books, periodicals, newspapers, and those very ladies who adorn their bonnets with stuffed terns and bullfinches. What is more contemptible is the attitude of “some eminent naturalist, who has possibly amassed a fine private collection in his youth, and has now taken up the fashionable cry.” We were reminded of the truth of this “reprisal” upon reading quite recently a review of this very book. A chapter on bird-protection deserves careful perusal. It is an able summary of the whole matter, so far as it concerns this country, and contains more common-sense and less rubbish (we had almost written hypocrisy) than any other disquisition on the subject we have met with for a long time. For the rest, the book is chiefly an account of the author's personal experience as a field ornithologist and collector in many and varied parts of the British Islands, and contains many very interesting notes and observations.

(1) A Bird Collector's Medley.

By E. C. Arnold. Pp. iv + 144; with 12 coloured and 8 collotype plates and illustrations in the text. (London: West, Newman and Co., 1907.) Price 10s.

(2) Birds of Britain.

By J. Lewis Bonhote. Pp. x + 405; with 100 illustrations in colour. (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1907.) Price 20s. net.

(3) A Book of Birds.

By W. P. Pycraft. Pp. viii + 155; with 30 full-page coloured plates and illustration in the text. (London: Sidney Appleton, 1908.) Price 6s. net.