Uniform with this volume, crown 8vo, cloth extra, 7s. 6d. THE POETS' BIRDS. By PHIL ROBINSON, Author of "Noah's Ark," &c. "Mr. Phil Robinson's new volume-a book which may be described as one half classified extracts from the poets, the other half a humorous defence of birds whom they have neglected or maligned-is a very pleasant one. The one half of Mr. Robinson's book may be set against the other; and an anthology which contains poems like Shelley's Skylark,' and a hundred touches, at once truthful and imaginative, from Keats and Byron and Burns, and many a lesser poet of the country like Grahame or Leyden, more than compensates for a certain want of variety in the allusions to greenfinches and crakes, and a too great tendency to describe all the less important songbirds as 'twittering.' But either half is very pleasant reading, and more especially to those who combine with a love of poetry some knowledge of the woods and fields."-St. James's Gazette. "Mr. Phil Robinson has hit upon a happy idea.... Throughout the book one is struck both by the author's exceptional knowledge of bird-nature and by his not less exceptional industry in the accumulation of material.... We can hardly be too hearty in our praise. The work is not only of great interest but of solid usefulness."-Derby Mercury. "Both informative and entertaining."-Scotsman. "A simply delightful book."-Illustrated London News. "Mr. Phil Robinson writes so charmingly and so originally that he cannot be quite let off for having given us so much of the poets and so little of himself in this fat and well-filled volume. His book consists mainly of extracts from English verse, strung together by certain short essays or remarks in the peculiar Robinsonian style of humour. What little of his own Mr. Robinson does vouchsafe us is as usual pretty and graceful enough-one half close observation in natural history, the other half delicate fancy and playful solemnity of his wonted mock-serious sort. There is a vast deal of genuinely valuable criticism underlying most of our author's seemingly playful and extravagant strictures, and rising writers of the new school, who attend so closely to all the delicate refinements of form in poetry, might do worse than take a leaf as to their treatment of matter out of his amusing book. It is needless to add that Mr. Robinson's fowls are studied from the very life, that out of the fulness of knowledge and observation his tongue has spoken words of wisdom on all the feathered things from China to Peru, and from England to the Cape of Good Hope. Nobody is better fitted by nature and opportunity to produce just such a work, with just such a mixture of strong literary flavour, wide information, and minute zoological accuracy."-Pall Mall Gazette. "The book is decidedly entertaining, and contains much information of a useful kind." -Literary World. "A very charming book, its only fault being that it is a little too encyclopaedic in character, and that its author, in his laudable desire to be absolutely exhaustive, has not given us as much as we should have liked of his own original and unique humour. There is no other work like this in the English language; and dip into it where we will, we are sure to find really delightful reading."-World." "The book is remarkable both in its conception and execution, and does great honour to the diligence and patient toil of one whose knowledge of English poetry in its full extent can hardly be surpassed."-Tablet. CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY, W. |