Open-Air Studies in Bird Life; Sketches of British Birds in their Haunts

Abstract

MŔ. DIXON appears to consider that the appetite of the British public for books on the birds of their own islands is insatiable, and as he seems to find a publisher for all his works on this subject, he is perhaps justified in this opinion. In the present instance the subject is treated from a standpoint somewhat different from the one usually adopted, the birds being described in connection with their environment or “station,” instead of systematically. Although this mode of treatment necessarily involves a certain amount of repetition (as in the case of the sparrow and the lapwing), it permits the descriptive side of the subject to be relegated somewhat to the background, and greater prominence given to habits. So far, however, as we can see, the author appears to have recorded little or nothing new in regard to the latter, and we venture to think that he has missed an opportunity of giving fuller detail as to adaptation to environment, especially as regards coloration. Neither is he to be congratulated as regards his style in many parts of the work, as witness the following sentences in the description of the. bearded tit (p. 184):—“The family characters are the same as the generic ones. It is found in various parts of Europe and Asia.” It may be also pointed out that “Obb”(p. 261) is not the name of a well-known Siberian river. Again, the introduction of the word “Raptores” in connection wrth a cut on p. 84 is unnecessary and puzzling, when it is not, so far as we can see, used in the text. And this reminds us that a glossary of eight items seems strangely inadequate in a work where a considerable number of technical terms are necessarily employed, for we quite fail to see why it is necessary to explain the meaning of “aftershaft” and leave the reader to find out the signification of “primary.”

Open-Air Studies in Bird Life; Sketches of British Birds in their Haunts.

By C. Dixon. Pp. xii + 280; illustrated. (London: Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1903.) Price 7s. 6d.