A Book-Lover’s Holidays in the Open

MR. WARDE FOWLER has written less and iir better known than any other writer of bird books of the present time. This small volume, containing 232 pages in large type, is but the fourth which he has produced on this subject in sixteen years, which would seem to promise a rare excellence in his work; and there is no doubt that it is excellent; but at the same time it must be said that his considerable reputation rests chiefly on his first production, "A Year with the Birds", one of the very few among scores of books on the same theme which may be read again and again with undiminished pleasure. It is not that he has gathered more than many others who have been with him in the same field: he has indeed gathered less, since the study of bird life is with him but a holiday recreation. It is his manner that is better than theirs. We may say that his merits in this respect are "best illustrated by their contraries", as seen in too many works of the day. A good manner is indeed curiously rare in those who treat of animal life. The late Bishop of London once remarked that he could not endure to read natural history books because they were so badly done. "A Year with the Birds " was well done, and a great many of the author's admirers will wish that he had given them another such book instead of "More Tales "--a second attempt on Mr. Fowler's part to revive an old form of writing which flourished in the early part of the last century, natural history disguised as fable for the little ones, or rather a compound or confection of natural history, fable and sentiment. The best example in this form which we are able to recall at this moment is Emily Taylor's booklet "The Boy and the Birds", illustrated with very pretty woodcuts by Charles Eastlake. Emily Taylor did not know very much about birds, but she had a gift and succeeded in making her little feathered people talk in character: some of her miniature essays are perfect models of their kind. If this form is worth reviving; if English birds are once more to be made to reason, and talk in print like human beings, and like the furred creatures of America, the task could not have fallen into better hands than those of Mr. Warde Fowler. Of the nine tales contained in this collection there are four-- "The Lark's Nest", "The Sandpipers", "Downs and Dungeons" and "A Lucky Magpie", which are admirable, and may be read with pleasure and profit by persons of all ages. In at least these few the effect aimed at by the writer, which is to inspire in his readers something of his own tender love and admiration of the birds, with hatred of the cruelty too often practiced on them, has been fully achieved. But, as we may see, it is a delicate and difficult kind of work, and we should like to conclude by expressing the hope that there will be few to attempt it, since if not well done it is apt to be very bad.--The Saturday Review, Vol. 94