Abstract
THE fact of a work reaching a second edition may generally be taken as an indication that it has received the seal of public approval, and that it accordingly needs no commendation from us. In the present instance, a ready reception would seem to be assured to the new edition, since many additions and improvements have been made. The most important addition is undoubtedly the series of life-like cuts of Indian birds, which adds very largely to the interest of the little volume; but it is also satisfactory to find that the arrangement and nomenclature have been revised so as to bring the work into harmony with the volumes on birds in the “Fauna of British India,” to which it may serve in some degree as an introduction. Mr. Finn has a vivacious, if sometimes flippant, style, which removes his works from the “dry-as-dust” category; but in some cases, as in the application of the term “disreputable” to the babbler, we venture to think some of his epithets might be better selected. To a former resident the omission of the adjutant stork from the list of Calcutta birds seems strange, but it appears that for many years these weird birds have ceased to visit the city of palaces.
The Birds of Calcutta.
By F. Finn. Second edition. Pp. vi + 136. (Calcutta: Thacker, Spink, and Co; London: Thacker and Co., 1904.)
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L., R. The Birds of Calcutta . Nature 71, 438 (1905). https://doi.org/10.1038/071438b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/071438b0