An Illustrated Manual of British Birds

Abstract

THE demand for works on British birds shows no signs of diminution, the popularity of the present instructive volume being vouched for by the fact of the exhaustion of the first edition of 3000 copies in less than eight years from the date of completion. The first edition being out of print early in 1897, the publishers lost no time in preparing a second, which commenced in November of that year and was completed on the first of June last. That this new issue is in no sense a mere replica of the preceding one is at once shown by a glance at the preface, where it is stated that, while the number of species admitted as British was then 367, it has now been raised to 384. Of course, these additional species are merely stragglers; and it seems to us that, in cases like those of the frigate-petrel and the black-browed albatross, it would have been decidedly better to include such stragglers in a separate list, as they have nothing whatever to do with the true British fauna. It must, however, be admitted that in making such a list of foreign stragglers it would be exceedingly difficult to know where to draw the line, so that we are not going to blame the author for the course he has thought fit to pursue.

An Illustrated Manual of British Birds.

By Howard Saunders. Second Edition; revised. Pp. xl + 776. Figs. and Maps. (London: Gurney and Jackson, 1897–99.)