More Books of the Week
(Continued from page 769.) Anyone who has watched the sheldrake, the handsomest and most proud of carriage of any of the duck family, walk statelily out of its burrow across the shining sands of an early morning will love to gaze on the picture the late Mr. Frank Southgate gives -in Wildfowl and Waders (Country Life, 68s.) of a group of those gaily plumaged fowl. But this is only one of a collection of exquisite illustrations (both in half-tone and colour) which the accurate hand and faithfully observing eye of the artist provide for the delight of every lover of birds. As the title implies, the birds in this book are chiefly those of the marsh, the mud-flats, and the sea- saltings, but place is found as well for the game birds of the covert and the field, and even for " Vermin and Various." Major Hugh Pollard contributes a pleasantly sub-acid and instructive running commentary, written mainly from a sportsman's point of view ; but is he not a little hard on the heron, whose sins againgt the trout may be considered as offset by the relentless war the bird wages against eels and rats 7 We know of a West Country trout stream where the water bailiff positively encourages the herons, and yet can boast of a magnificent head of trout.
* * * *
Previous page
