BRITISH BIRDS.* Tins splendid work, which is promised us completed
in four volumes by the autumn of 1916, is a fine addition to the literature of British ornithology. Every one knows and
• British Birds. Written and Illustrated by A. Thorburn, F.Z.S. With SO Plates in Colour oliooring over 400 Spode.. VOL I. London Longman, and Co. [4 vols.. ZS Ga. nat.]
admires Mr. Thorburn's art; and this will be the finest and most complete modern work that exists. The skill of the artist is admirable in every respect, and the process of repro. duction could hardly be better carried out. To those who are familiar with the illustrations which Mr. Thorburn contributed some while ago to Lord Lilford's and Mr. Millais's books it is unnecessary to say how cleverly the artist's brush catches the attitude and habit of each species.
Mr. Thorburn has endeavoured, he tells us, to represent as many birds as possible on the same page. This has enabled him to make his volumes of tolerably convenient size. It most be admitted that it has the advantage, since all the birds on the same plate are drawn to the same scale, of enabling the reader to compare the size and colour of the different species. At the same time, this now and then produces a rather crowded and incongruous mixture. The pleasure of seeing each bird isolated on a plate of its own is a real one. We have no feeling against all the Panicles or tits appearing on the same plate, or even on the same tree. But when the goldcrest, the nuthatch, and the dipper are figured together it produces a mixed company. It would, how- ever, be ungrateful to make any grievance of so trifling a matter. Each bird has a little bit of suitable landscape as a background. Many have been painted from living speci- mens ; where it has not been possible to obtain living drawings the gaps have been filled from the best preserved specimens that could be procured. In every case the lifelike poses are reproduced with a skill suds fidelity that, to onrthinking, have never been surpassed. To look at the illustrations of Mr. Thorburn's book is a real pleasure to an ornithologist.
The letterpress which accompanies the coloured plates is admittedly subsidiary to them. The illustrations are the feature of the work. The text is a compilation; but though very short it is adequate. Wherever we have been able to test it the statements seem accurate. The best standard authorities have been consulted, and half a page, or less, of print describes quite shortly the habits and distribution of each species. It will be seen that even the rarer stragglers are included, and when the book is complete it will provide a collection of coloured figures of over four hundred species. The list of birds accounted British is always increasing in length. Rare stragglers from Fair Isle on migration, or from the Eastern Counties, after a storm which has blown them out of their course, are regularly being recorded. In former days they would have escaped attention. Now ornithologists on the watch are annually more numerous. The present volume begins with the thrushes and ends with the crows. It is idle to deny that it is an expensive book, but to the student of ornithology or the mere lover of birds who can afford six guineas it will be a delightful possession. Nothing better and nothing so complete has yet been published.
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