File:British birds (1907) (20228871180).jpg

Title: British birds
Identifier: britishbirds01lond (find matches)
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: London, Witherby & Co
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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A Monograph of the Petrels (Order Tuhinares). By F. Du Cane Godman, F.R.S. Large Royal 4to, with over 100 hand- coloured plates. Witherby & Co. This Monograph of the Petrels was originally contemplated by the late Osbert Salvin, and there could not have been a more fitting author for the work. It has now been taken up by his friend, Dr. Godman, with whom he was associated in so many of his ornithological researches, and the large amount of material accumulated by him has been added to and brought up to date to form the basis of the present work. It is to be issued in five quarterly parts, the first two of which are now before us. These deal with the large family of Storm Petrels, of which there are twenty-five species included in eight genera, and twenty-four species of Shearwaters in one genus (Puffinus). It will thus be seen that the greater number of the British species are included in these two instalments. The general arrangement of the work is on the usual lines of such Monographs, and has been admirably carried out. Starting each species with an adequate synonymy, the author adds a short Latin diagnosis, and then follow s the geographical distribution, and such detail of habits, food, and nesting as are at present known, and each article ends with a full description of the eggs and the various phases of plumage, including, in many cases the nestlings, and a statement of the sources whence the specimens described and figured were obtained. It is inevitable, when deahng with such a wide subject, that the types of one or two of the species are still unique, and the breeding quarters of several others still unknown ; so that there are many gaps in our knowledge that yet require filling. It is to be noted, however, that a large amount of fresh knowledge has lately been acquired with regard to a number of species by the researches of the recent antarctic expeditions, notably our own National, and the Scottish Expedition, and of this knowledge the author has made full use, as a glance at his article on Wilson's Petrel alone will at once show. With regard to the occasional wanderers to the British Isles, we find their occurrences all briefly noticed with references to the original records. It is interesting to note that Oceanodroma castro, which was taken for the first time in Europe on the coast of Kent in 1895, was found twice in Denmark during

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