THE LIBRARY TABLE.
65
compel resort to the costly, and not always absolutely unexceptionable,
alternative. In the strait between highly probable danger to life in the natural,
and certain injury to the purse in the artificial, purveyance of water to the
home of the peasant, there is a tendency to evade the difficulty by a policy of
"masterly inactivity," not refusing to move, but—not moving.
In a subsequent number we shall hope to summarise some of the valuable
particulars which crowd this very excellent and interesting Report.
W. H. Dalton.
A Handbook of British Birds; showing the Distribution of the
Resident and Migratory Species in the British Islands; with an
Index to the Records of the Rarer Visitants. By J. E. Harting,
F.L.S., F.Z.S., Member of the British Ornithologists' Union. New and
Revised Edition; with 35 coloured Plates, carefully reproduced from
original drawings by the late Professor Schlegel. London : J. C. Nimmo,
1901 31 + 520 pp. demy-octavo. (Price two guineas nett.)
Mr. Harting's Handbook of British Birds has been, for more than a quarter
of a century, a standard work of reference with working British ornithologists.
To say this is to say, in effect, that it has been long out of date ; for our
knowledge of the natural history of British Birds has advanced enormously with-
in the last quarter of a century. Now, however, comes a new edition which is
almost incomparably superior to the old. The scope and general arrange-
ment of the work remain the same, but illustrations have been added, and, in
respect of matter also, the new edition is so much larger than the old as to
constitute almost a new work. Certainly it is by far the most important work
on British Birds which has appeared for some years.
There is, unquestionably, an opening for a volume of this kind, written
by an acknowledged authority and furnished with coloured illustrations. The
splendidly-illustrated works of the late Lord Lilford, Messrs. Sharpe and
Dresser, and others have been published, necessarily, at a price which places
them above the reach of the average ornithologist. Of those works of real
scientific value which have been within his reach, none have had coloured
plates —for instance, Newton and Saunders' Yarrell, Seebohm 's British Birds,
and Saunders' Manual. Almost the only work on British Birds which is at
once fairly complete, moderate in price, and provided with coloured plates is
"Morris"—a pretentious treatise which never had any great scientific value
and has long been hopelessly out of date. There has been, therefore, a long
felt want for a really authoritative book on British Birds, in one volume, with
good coloured illustrations, and at a moderate price. This want the present
work meets admirably.
Mr. Harting's book must not be mistaken for an ordinary "History" of
British Birds. It scarcely notices habits, nidification, changes of plumage, and
such matters. The author's chief aim has been (as he explains) to show "the
"precise status of every so-called British bird, distinguishing the rare and
"accidental visitors from the residents and annual migrants." He errs,
however, in claiming that this kind of information is "not to be found in any
"other work on British Birds." He meant, doubtless, to claim that it was