Birds, Game, and Trees 1

Abstract

MR. KEARTON'S books on British birds (1) are so well, and deservedly, known, that the new edition of his work entitled “British Birds Nests” calls for only a brief notice. The original edition first saw the light in the autumn of 1895, and was the first book of its kind to be illustrated throughout by means of photographs taken direct from nature, and was declared by the late Dr. Bowdler Sharpe to “mark a new era in natural history.” This was followed in 1891 by another volume, entitled, “Our Rarer British Breeding Birds.” The present revised and enlarged edition of the first work contains the best of the pictures that appeared in the pages of the second, together with numerous photographs secured during the intervening years. To give an idea of the time and labour expended in gathering materials for this book, it may be mentioned that Mr. Richard Kearton, with his brother, Mr. Cherry Kearton, to whom, we understand, most of the photography is entrusted, have travelled more than thirty thousand miles and exposed more than ten thousand plates to secure the necessary illustrations of nesting sites and birds. In addition to the photographs, the book is illustrated with fifteen coloured plates of eggs.