REVIEWS 133 



REVIEWS. 



THE GEOGRAPHY OF MAMMALS. By William Lutley Sclater, 

 M.A., F.Z.S., and Philip Lutley Sclater, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S. 

 (London : Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner and Co., Ltd., 1899.) 



This volume affords, in a collected, convenient, and revised form, 

 the valuable series of papers contributed by Mr. W.->L. Sclater to 

 the "Geographical Magazine" between the years 1894 and 1897. 

 To these have been added chapters dealing with the subject from 

 the Zoological standpoint, and a chapter devoted to marine mammals 

 and their distribution. The book is embellished by 50 illustrations 

 giving excellent portraits of some typical mammals from each of the 

 zoo-geographical regions, and 8 maps showing the regions and 

 their division into sub-regions. The work is a valuable contribu- 

 tion to the important subject upon which it treats ; and the fact that 

 Dr. Sclater, the founder of the modern system upon which the 

 geographical distribution of animals is based, has revised and edited 

 it, places the book in the forefront of works of its kind. The index, 

 however, is very unsatisfactory, having many shortcomings, which is 

 much to be regretted in a work treating of so many families and 

 species. 



OUR RARER BRITISH BREEDING BIRDS : THEIR NESTS, EGGS, 

 AND SUMMER HAUNTS. By Richard Kearton, F.Z.S. Illustrated 

 by Photographs by C. Kearton. (Cassell and Co., Ltd., 1899.) 



The title of this book is a decided misnomer, for the Blackcap, 

 the Corn Bunting, the Jay, and other species treated of are certainly 

 not among the "rarer British breeding birds." The fact is, the 

 book is a supplement to the author's volume on British Birds' 

 Eggs (1895). It is practically the fourth book on the subject 

 Mr. Kearton has issued in as many years. Like the others, its value 

 lies in the beauty of its illustrations. 



We notice in the preface certain observations on the " Wild 

 Bird Protection Laws," claiming that the only real good done in the 

 United Kingdom in the way of bird preservation has been accom- 

 plished by private effort. This is not the case in Scotland. But 

 what could private effort accomplish without the laws ? It is a very 

 easy thing to criticise the Bird, or any other, Acts ; but Mr. Kearton 

 fails to tell us what he would have us do unless, indeed, his extra- 

 ordinary opinion that prosecutions are undesirable, because they 

 advertise the locality from which the specimens were obtained, can 

 be regarded as such. If so, he takes anything but a lofty view of 

 our duty towards our feathered friends in adversity. 



