BOOK NOTICES 127 



insist on applying the priority rule in every case, regardless of 

 prospective inconvenience and confusion. " I confess," he writes, 

 "that I sympathise with those zoologists who wish to be as 

 conservative as possible in applying the rule of priority. It is a mere 

 means for conveniently deciding disputed cases, not a moral law 

 which must be enforced whether convenient or not. ... I cannot see 

 that anything is gained, whereas much is obviously lost, by dis- 

 carding a well-known name in favour of an obscure and forgotten 

 one, when there is practically no competition between them." 

 Neither is he a " splitter," being inclined, rather, to consider that the 

 creation of genera and species is at times carried too far. An 

 extensive Bibliography for the period since 1855 follows the 

 Synopsis. From the long list of citations we miss, however, the 

 following Scottish faunal works in which Nudibranchiates are 

 included ; Leslie and Herdman's " Invertebrate Fauna of the Firth 

 of Forth," 1881, and the British Association "Handbook of the 

 Fauna, Flora, and Geology of the Clyde Area," 1901. W. E. 



REPORT ON THE IMMIGRATION OF SUMMER RESIDENTS IN THE 

 SPRING OF 1909; ALSO ON MIGRATORY MOVEMENTS DURING THE 

 AUTUMN OF 1908. Bull. Brit. Orn. Club. Vol. xxv. 6s. net. 



This is the fifth annual report of the Committee of the British 

 Ornithological Club on this subject which has been noticed in our 

 pages. It is based upon the same lines as those previously dealt 

 with, and hence does not call for more than a few words. We must 

 remark, however, that it is a much more bulky volume than any of 

 its forerunners, and extends to no less than 347 pages. It bears 

 evidence of having been carefully prepared, and should certainly be 

 studied bv all interested in bird-migration as observed in the British 



^ o 



Isles. 



THE BRITISH WARDLERS. By H. Eliot Howard. Illustrated 

 by Henrick Gronvold. Part V. London: R. H. Porter. 2 is. net. 



This, the initial instalment of Volume II. of this very beautiful 

 book, like its predecessors, commands most favourable notice. In 

 it the high standard of the text for originality and interest, and of 

 the plates for their beauty is fully maintained. The text consists 

 chiefly of an exhaustive account of the habits of the Reed Warbler, 

 to which no less than sixty-one pages are devoted. There are five 

 coloured portraits, an equal number of photogravure plates depicting 

 habits, and six maps illustrating seasonal distribution. G. G.-M. 



THE DISTRIBUTION OF HEPATICVE IN SCOTLAND. By Symers 

 M. Macvicar. (Transactions of Edinburgh Botanical Society, 1910. 

 vol. xxv. 336 pp.) 



Though issued as a volume of " Transactions," this is really an 

 independent work, and is one of the most important that has 

 appeared for some time on any branch of the flora of Scotland. 



Its value is much increased by its being in every part based 



