The Birds of Lancashire

Abstract

IMPORTANT as are the services which the writers of county faunas have rendered to the study of British ornithology every one knows, or ought to know, that such works have a very variable value. In some cases the geographical position of the county concerned is such as to invest its avifauna with high interest quite apart from the manner of its treatment, which may be, and in a few instances that we could but will not name, has been of a slovenly character. Or again, local considerations may be comparatively insignificant, and yet the book, from the combined knowledge and skill of the author, will be a great and positive gain to zoological literature. Thus it follows that the most pretentious works not unfrequently fall short of even a moderate standard of excellence, while that is attained or even surpassed by others put forward with unpresuming modesty. It gives us great pleasure to express our opinion that the little book now before us, “The Birds of Lancashire,” falls well within the latter category. Its author, Mr. Frederick Shaw Mitchell, is known to have been engaged in its preparation for several years, and that he has used those years of preparation to good purpose almost every page in the book testifies. We have especially to commend his introductory remarks, which prove that he has taken the proper and philosophical view of the duties of a faunistic monographer, while the rest of the book shows how efficiently he has discharged them according to that view.

The Birds of Lancashire.

By F. S. Mitchell Illustrated by J. G. Keulemans, Victor Prout, &c. Pp. xviii. 224. (London: Van Voorst, 1885.)