WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
Glimpses of Indian Birds cover

Glimpses of Indian Birds

Chapter 52: Transcriber’s Notes
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

About This Book

A sequence of concise natural-history sketches records the habits, plumage, songs, nesting and habitats of Indian birds, ranging from sunbirds and bulbuls to vultures and flamingos, with notes on migration and seasonal visitors. Field observations and local scene-setting are combined with species portraits and anecdote, while the author repeatedly challenges prevailing theories of protective colouration and criticizes zoological authorities who privilege doctrine over direct observation. Individual chapters concentrate on particular species or groups, blending behavioral description with reflections on how careful watching can unsettle established hypotheses about camouflage and animal expression.

GATES OF THE DOLOMITES. By L. Marion Davidson. With 32 Illustrations from Photographs and a Map. Crown 8vo. Second Edition. 5s. net.

⁂ Whilst many English books have appeared on the Lande Tirol, few have given more than a chapter on the fascinating Dolomite Land, and it is in the hope of helping other travellers to explore the mountain land with less trouble and inconvenience than fell to her lot that the author has penned these attractive pages. The object of this book is not to inform the traveller how to scale the apparently inaccessible peaks of the Dolomites, but rather how to find the roads, and thread the valleys, which lead him to the recesses of this most lovely part of the world’s face, and Miss Davidson conveys just the knowledge which is wanted for this purpose; especially will her map be appreciated by those who wish to make their own plans for a tour, as it shows at a glance the geography of the country.

KNOWLEDGE AND LIFE. By William Arkwright. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net.

⁂ This is a remarkably written book—brilliant and vital. Mr. Arkwright illumines a number of subjects with jewelled flashes of word harmony and chisels them all with the keen edge of his wit. Art, Letters, and Religion of different appeals move before the reader in vari-coloured array, like the dazzling phantasmagoria of some Eastern dream.

CHANGING RUSSIA. A Tramp along the Black Sea Shore and in the Urals. By Stephen Graham. Author of “Undiscovered Russia,” “A Vagabond in the Caucasus,” etc. With Illustrations and a Map. Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.

⁂ In “Changing Russia,” Mr. Stephen Graham describes a journey from Rostof-on-the-Don to Batum and a summer spent on the Ural Mountains. The author has traversed all the region which is to be developed by the new railway from Novo-rossisk to Poti. It is a tramping diary with notes and reflections. The book deals more with the commercial life of Russia than with that of the peasantry, and there are chapters on the Russia of the hour, the Russian town, life among the gold miners of the Urals, the bourgeois, Russian journalism, the intelligentsia, the election of the fourth Duma. An account is given of Russia at the seaside, and each of the watering places of the Black Sea shore is described in detail.

ROBERT FULTON ENGINEER AND ARTIST: HIS LIFE AND WORK. By H. W. Dickinson, A.M.I.Mech.E. Demy 8vo. 10s 6d. net.

⁂ No Biography dealing as a whole with the life-work of the celebrated Robert Fulton has appeared of late years, in spite of the fact that the introduction of steam navigation on a commercial scale, which was his greatest achievement has recently celebrated its centenary.

The author has been instrumental in bringing to light a mass of documentary matter relative to Fulton, and has thus been able to present the facts about him in an entirely new light. The interesting but little known episode of his career as an artist is for the first time fully dealt with. His stay in France and his experiments under the Directory and the Empire with the submarine and with the steamboat are elucidated with the aid of documents preserved in the Archives Nationales at Paris. His subsequent withdrawal from France and his employment by the British Cabinet to destroy the Boulogne flotilla that Napoleon had prepared in 1804 to invade England are gone into fully. The latter part of his career in the United States, spent in the introduction of steam navigation and in the construction of the first steam-propelled warship, is of the greatest interest. With the lapse of time facts assume naturally their true perspective. Fulton, instead of being represented, according to the English point of view, as a charlatan and even as a traitor, or from the Americans as a universal genius, is cleared from these charges, and his pretensions critically examined, with the result that he appears as a cosmopolitan, an earnest student, a painstaking experimenter and an enterprising engineer.

It is believed that practically nothing of moment in Fulton’s career has been omitted. The illustrations, which are numerous, are drawn in nearly every case from the original sources. It may confidently be expected, therefore, that this book will take its place as the authoritative biography which everyone interested in the subjects enumerated above will require to possess.

A STAINED GLASS TOUR IN ITALY. By Charles H. Sherrill. Author of “Stained Glass Tours in England,” “Stained Glass Tours in France,” etc. With 33 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.

⁂ Mr. Sherrill has already achieved success with his two previous books on the subject of stained glass. In Italy he finds a new field, which offers considerable scope for his researches. His present work will appeal not only to tourists, but to the craftsmen, because of the writer’s sympathy with the craft. Mr. Sherrill is not only an authority whose writing is clear in style and full of understanding for the requirements of the reader, but one whose accuracy and reliability are unquestionable. This is the most important book published on the subject with which it deals, and readers will find it worthy to occupy the position.

SCENES AND MEMORIES OF THE PAST. By the Honble. Stephen Coleridge. With numerous Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.

⁂ Mr. Stephen Coleridge has seen much of the world in two hemispheres and has been able to count among his intimate personal friends many of those whose names have made the Victorian age illustrious.

Mr. Coleridge fortunately kept a diary for some years of his life and has religiously preserved the letters of his distinguished friends; and in this book the public are permitted to enjoy the perusal of much vitally interesting correspondence.

With a loving and appreciative hand the author sketches the characters of many great men as they were known to their intimate associates. Cardinals Manning and Newman, G. F. Watts, James Russell Lowell, Matthew Arnold, Sir Henry Irving, Goldwin Smith, Lewis Morris, Sir Stafford Northcote, Whistler, Oscar Wilde, Ruskin, and many others famous in the nineteenth century will be found sympathetically dealt with in this book.

During his visit to America as the guest of the American Bar in 1883, Lord Coleridge, the Chief Justice, and the author’s father wrote a series of letters, which have been carefully preserved, recounting his impressions of the United States and of the leading citizens whom he met.

Mr. Coleridge has incorporated portions of these letters from his father in the volume, and they will prove deeply interesting on both sides of the Atlantic.

Among the illustrations are many masterly portraits never before published.

From the chapter on the author’s library, which is full of priceless literary treasures, the reader can appreciate the appropriate surroundings amid which this book was compiled.

ANTHONY TROLLOPE: HIS WORK, ASSOCIATES AND ORIGINALS. By T. H. S. Escott. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.

⁂ The author of this book has not solely relied for his materials on a personal intimacy with its subject, during the most active years of Trollope’s life, but from an equal intimacy with Trollope’s contemporaries and from those who had seen his early life. He has derived, and here sets forth, in chronological order, a series of personal incidents and experiences that could not be gained but for the author’s exceptional opportunities. These incidents have never before appeared in print, but that are absolutely essential for a right understanding of the opinions—social, political, and religious—of which Trollope’s writings became the medium, as well as of the chief personages in his stories, from the “Macdermots of Ballycloran” (1847) to the posthumous “Land Leaguers” (1883). All lifelike pictures, whether of place, individual, character of incident, are painted from life. The entirely fresh light now thrown on the intellectual and spiritual forces, chiefly felt by the novelist during his childhood, youth and early manhood, helped to place within his reach the originals of his long portrait gallery, and had their further result in the opinions, as well as the estimates of events and men in which his writings abound, and which, whether they cause agreement or dissent, always reveal life, nature, and stimulate thought. The man, who had for his Harrow schoolfellows Sidney Herbert and Sir William Gregory, was subsequently brought into the closest relations with the first State officials of his time, was himself one of the most active agents in making penny postage a national and imperial success, and when he planted the first pillar-box in the Channel Islands, accomplished on his own initiative a great postal reform. A life so active, varied and full, gave him a greater diversity of friends throughout the British Isles than belonged to any other nineteenth century worker, literary or official. Hence the unique interest of Trollope’s course, and therefore this, its record.

THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH PATRIOTISM. By Esmé C Wingfield Stratford, Fellow King’s College, Cambridge. In 2 vols. Demy 8vo. With a Frontispiece to each volume, (1,300 pages). 25s. net.

⁂ This work compresses into about HALF A MILLION WORDS the substance of EIGHT YEARS of uninterrupted labour.

The book has been read and enthusiastically commended by the leading experts in the principal subjects embraced in this encyclopædic survey of English History.

When this work was first announced under the above title, the publisher suggested calling it “A New History of England.” Indeed it is both. Mr. Wingfield Stratford endeavours to show how everything of value that nations in general, and the English nation in particular, have at any time achieved has been the direct outcome of the common feeling upon which patriotism is built. He sees, and makes his readers see, the manifold development of England as one connected whole with no more branch of continuity than a living body or a perfect work of art.

The author may fairly claim to have accomplished what few previous historians have so much as attempted. He has woven together the threads of religion, politics, war, philosophy, literature, painting, architecture, law and commerce, into a narrative of unbroken and absorbing interest.

The book is a world-book. Scholars will reconstruct their ideas from it, economics examine the gradual fruition of trade, statesmen devise fresh creative plans, and the general reader will feel he is no insignificant unit, but the splendid symbol of a splendid world.

CHARLES CONDER: HIS LIFE AND WORK. By Frank Gibson. With a Catalogue of the Lithographs and Etchings by Campbell Dodgson, M.S., Keeper of Prints and Drawings, British Museum. With about 100 reproductions of Conder’s work, 12 of which are in colour. Demy 4to. 21s. net.

⁂ With the exception of one or two articles in English Art Magazines, and one or two in French, German, and American periodicals, no book up to the present has appeared fully to record the life and work of Charles Condor, by whose death English Art has lost one of its most original personalities. Consequently it has been felt that a book dealing with Conder’s life so full of interest, and his work so full of charm and beauty, illustrated by characteristic examples of his Art both in colour and in black and white, would be welcome to the already great and increasing number of his admirers.

The author of this book, Mr. Frank Gibson, who knew Conder in his early days in Australia and afterwards in England during the rest of the artist’s life, is enabled in consequence to do full justice, not only to the delightful character of Conder as a friend, but is also able to appreciate his remarkable talent.

The interest and value of this work will be greatly increased by the addition of a complete catalogue of Conder’s lithographs and engravings, compiled by Mr. Campbell Dodgson, M.A., Keeper of the Print-Room of the British Museum.

PHILIP DUKE OF WHARTON. By Lewis Melville. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 21s. net.

⁂ A character more interesting than Philip, Duke of Wharton, does not often fall to the lot of a biographer, yet, by some strange chance, though nearly two hundred years have passed since that wayward genius passed away, the present work is the first that gives a comprehensive account of his life. A man of unusual parts and unusual charm, he at once delighted and disgusted his contemporaries. Unstable as water, he was like Dryden’s Zimri, “Everything by starts and nothing long.” He was poet and pamphleteer, wit, statesman, buffoon, and amorist. The son of one of the most stalwart supporters of the Hanoverian dynasty, he went abroad and joined the Pretender, who created him a duke. He then returned to England, renounced the Stuarts, and was by George I. also promoted to a dukedom—while he was yet a minor. He was the friend of Attenbury and the President of the Hell-Fire Club. At one time he was leading Spanish troops against his countrymen, at another seeking consolation in a monastery. It is said that he was the original of Richardson’s Lovelace.

THE LIFE OF MADAME TALLIEN NOTRE DAME DE THERMIDOR (A Queen of Shreds and Patches.) From the last days of the French Revolution, until her death as Princess Chimay in 1885. By L. Gastine. Translated from the French by J. Lewis May. With a Photogravure Frontispiece and 16 other Illustrations Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.

⁂ There is no one in the history of the French Revolution who has been more eagerly canonised than Madame Tallien; yet according to M. Gastine, there is no one in that history who merited canonisation so little. He has therefore set himself the task of dissipating the mass of legend and sentiment that has gathered round the memory of “La Belle Tallien” and of presenting her to our eyes as she really was. The result of his labour is a volume, which combines the scrupulous exactness of conscientious research with the richness and glamour of a romance. In the place of the beautiful heroic but purely imaginary figure of popular tradition, we behold a woman, dowered indeed with incomparable loveliness, but utterly unmoral, devoid alike of heart and soul, who readily and repeatedly prostituted her personal charms for the advancement of her selfish and ignoble aims. Though Madame Tallien is the central figure of the book, the reader is introduced to many other personages who played famous or infamous roles in the contemporary social or political arena, and the volume, which is enriched by a number of interesting portraits, throws a new and valuable light on this stormy and perennially fascinating period of French history.

MINIATURES: A Series of Reproductions in Photogravure of Ninety-Six Miniatures of Distinguished Personages, including Queen Alexandra, the Queen of Norway, the Princess Royal, and the Princess Victoria. Painted by Charles Turrell. (Folio.) The Edition is limited to One Hundred Copies for sale in England and America, and Twenty-Five Copies for Presentation, Review, and the Museums. Each will be Numbered and Signed by the Artist. 15 guineas net.

RECOLLECTIONS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT. By his Valet François. Translated from the French by Maurice Reynold. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.

THE WIFE OF GENERAL BONAPARTE. By Joseph Turquan. Author of “The Love Affairs of Napoleon,” etc. Translated from the French by Miss Violette Montagu. With a Photogravure Frontispiece and 16 other Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.

⁂ Although much has been written concerning the Empress Josephine, we know comparatively little about the veuve Beauharnais and the citoyenne Bonaparte, whose inconsiderate conduct during her husband’s absence caused him so much anguish. We are so accustomed to consider Josephine as the innocent victim of a cold and calculating tyrant who allowed nothing, neither human lives nor natural affections, to stand in the way of his all-conquering will, that this volume will come to us rather as a surprise. Modern historians are over-fond of blaming Napoleon for having divorced the companion of his early years; but after having read the above work, the reader will be constrained to admire General Bonaparte’s forbearance and will wonder how he ever came to allow her to play the Queen at the Tuileries.

THE JOURNAL OF A SPORTING NOMAD. By J. T. STUDLEY. With a Portrait and 32 other Illustrations, principally from Photographs by the Author. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.

⁂ “Not for a long time have we read such straightforward, entertaining accounts of wild sport and adventure.”—Manchester Guardian.

⁂ “His adventures have the whole world for their theatre. There is a great deal of curious information and vivid narrative that will appeal to everybody.”—Standard.

SOPHIE DAWES, QUEEN OF CHANTILLY. By Violette M. Montagu. Author of “The Scottish College in Paris,” etc. With a Photogravure Frontispiece and 16 other Illustrations and Three Plans. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.

⁂ Among the many queens of France, queens by right of marriage with the reigning sovereign, queens of beauty or of intrigue, the name of Sophie Dawes, the daughter of humble fisherfolk in the Isle of Wight, better known as “the notorious Mme. de Feucheres,” “The Queen of Chantilly” and “The Montespan de Saint Leu” in the land which she chose as a suitable sphere in which to exercise her talents for money-making and for getting on in the world, stand forth as a proof of what a woman’s will can accomplish when that will is accompanied with an uncommon share of intelligence.

MARGARET OF FRANCE DUCHESS OF SAVOY. 1523-1574. A Biography with Photogravure Frontispiece and 16 other Illustrations and Facsimile Reproductions of Hitherto Unpublished Letters. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.

⁂ A time when the Italians are celebrating the Jubilee of the Italian Kingdom is perhaps no unfitting moment in which to glance back over the annals of that royal House of Savoy which has rendered Italian unity possible. Margaret of France may without exaggeration be counted among the builders of modern Italy. She married Emanuel Philibert, the founder of Savoyard greatness; and from the day of her marriage until the day of her death she laboured to advance the interests of her adopted land.

MADAME DE BRINVILLIERS AND HER TIMES. 1630-1676. By Hugh Stokes. With a Photogravure Frontispiece and 16 other Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.

⁂ The name of Marie Marguerite d’Aubray, Marquise de Brinvilliers, is famous in the annals of crime, but the true history of her career is little known. A woman of birth and rank, she was also a remorseless poisoner, and her trial was one of the most sensational episodes of the early reign of Louis XIV. The author was attracted to this curious subject by Charles le Brun’s realistic sketch of the unhappy Marquise as she appeared on her way to execution. This chef d’oeuvre of misery and agony forms the frontispiece to the volume, and strikes a fitting keynote to an absorbing story of human passion and wrong-doing.

THE VICISSITUDES OF A LADY-IN WAITING. 1735-1821. By Eugene Welvert. Translated from the French by Lilian O’Neill. With a Photogravure Frontispiece and 16 other Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.

⁂ The Duchesse de Narbonne-Lara was Lady-in-Waiting to Madame Adelaide, the eldest daughter of Louis XV. Around the stately figure of this Princess are gathered the most remarkable characters of the days of the Old Regime, the Revolution and the first Empire. The great charm of the work is that it takes us over so much and varied ground. Here, in the gay crowd of ladies and courtiers, in the rustle of flowery silken paniers, in the clatter of high-heeled shoes, move the figures of Louis XV., Louis XVI., Du Barri and Marie-Antoinette. We catch picturesque glimpses of the great wits, diplomatists and soldiers of the time, until, finally we encounter Napoleon Bonaparte.

ANNALS OF A YORKSHIRE HOUSE. From the Papers of a Macaroni and his kindred. By A. M. W. Stirling, author of “Coke of Norfolk and his Friends.” With 33 Illustrations, including 3 in Colour and 3 in Photogravure. Demy 8vo. 2 vols. 32s. net.

WILLIAM HARRISON AINSWORTH AND HIS FRIENDS. By S. M. Ellis. With upwards of 50 Illustrations, 4 in Photogravure. 2 vols. Demy 8vo. 32s. net.

NAPOLEON AND KING MURAT. 1805-1815: A Biography compiled from hitherto Unknown and Unpublished Documents. By Albert Espitalier. Translated from the French by J. Lewis May. With a Photogravure Frontispiece and 16 other Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.

LADY CHARLOTTE SCHREIBER’S JOURNALS Confidences of a Collector of Ceramics and Antiques throughout Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and Turkey. From the year 1869 to 1885. Edited by Montague Guest, with Annotations by Egan Mew. With upwards of 100 Illustrations, including 8 in colour and 2 in Photogravure. Royal 8vo. 2 volumes. 42s. net.

CHARLES DE BOURBON, CONSTABLE OF FRANCE: “The Great Condottiere.” By Christopher Hare. With a Photogravure Frontispiece and 16 other Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.

THE NELSONS OF BURNHAM THORPE: A Record of a Norfolk Family compiled from Unpublished Letters and Note Books, 1787-1843. Edited by M. Eyre Matcham. With a Photogravure Frontispiece and 16 other illustrations. Demy 8vo. 16s. net.

⁂ This interesting contribution to Nelson literature is drawn from the journals and correspondence of the Rev. Edmund Nelson, Rector of Burnham Thorpe and his youngest daughter, the father and sister of Lord Nelson. The Rector was evidently a man of broad views and sympathies, for we find him maintaining friendly relations with his son and daughter-in-law after their separation. What is even more strange, he felt perfectly at liberty to go direct from the house of Mrs. Horatio Nelson in Norfolk to that of Sir William and Lady Hamilton in London, where his son was staying. This book shows how completely and without any reserve the family received Lady Hamilton.

MARIA EDGEWORTH AND HER CIRCLE IN THE DAYS OF BONAPARTE AND BOURBON. By Constance Hill. Author of “Jane Austen: Her Homes and Her Friends,” “Juniper Hall,” “The House in St. Martin’s Street,” etc. With numerous Illustrations by Ellen G. Hill and Reproductions of Contemporary Portraits, etc. Demy 8vo. 21s. net.

CESAR FRANCK: A Study. Translated from the French of Vincent d’Indy, with an Introduction by Rosa Newmarch. Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.

John Lane, The Bodley Head, Vigo Street, London, W.


Transcriber’s Notes

  • Retained publisher information from the printed copy (the electronic edition is in the public domain in the country of publication).
  • Corrected some palpable typos, including several botanical names.
  • Compared contents to Table of Contents, added one entry for Bulbuls’ Nests, Part II.
  • Moved all promotional material to the end of the book.
  • In the text versions only, represented text font and size variations (the HTML version preserves the presentation of the original):
  • Text in italics is delimited by _underscores_.
  • Subscripted numbers are preceded by an underscore, as in the formula for water “H_2O”.
  • Superscripted numbers are preceded by a caret, as in “45^o”.