(1) The Food of some British Wild Birds: a Study in Economic Ornithology (2) The Birds of the, British Isles (3) British Birds

Abstract

(1) ALTHOUGH Dr. Collinge modestly calls this a revised edition of his work of 1913, it is virtually a new book. In place of the twenty-nine species formerly considered, the feeding habits of seventy are now discussed in detail, a considerable number being sea-birds, which had no place in the earlier work. The data for most of the species have been extended, the volumetric system of analysis, now universally adopted in the United States of America, has been superimposed upon the numerical system, and the useful chapters dealing with general aspects of the economic relationships of birds have been added to and expanded. On the whole, it is surprising in how many cases an analysis of the food stuffs taken over a long period tells in favour of birds usually condemned as unmitigated pests, even although the statistics here given reckon against the bird much in the food content which can be of no agricultural value. The statistical methods adopted in such investigations still fall far short of scientific precision and leave the final judgment to personal interpretation with wide margins, but until better methods are evolved, Dr. Collinge's book will remain the standard British work on the subject.

(1) The Food of some British Wild Birds: a Study in Economic Ornithology.

By Dr. Walter E. Collinge. Second revised and englared edition. Pp. xix + 427 + 9 plates. (York: Published by the Author, Youkshire Museum, 1927.) n.p.

(2) The Birds of the, British Isles.

By T. A. Coward. (The Wayside and Woodland Series.) Third Series: Comprising their Migration and Habits and Observations on our rarer Visitants. Pp. xi + 308 + 127 plates. (London and New York: Frederick Warne and Co., Ltd., 1926.) 10s. 6d. net.

(3) British Birds.

Written and Illustrated by Archibald Thorburn. New edition. In 4 vols. Vol. 4. Pp. x + 154 + plates 145-192. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., Ltd., 1926.) 16s. net.