BOOK NOTICES 63 



NOTES ON A CENSUS OF THE FLORA OF THE AUSTRALIAN 

 ALPS. By James Stirling, A.I.C.E. Trans. B. S. Ed., xxii. part iii. 

 pp. 319-395, 1904 (read 12/2/04). Introductory remarks are fol- 

 lowed by an enumeration of the species, with the elevations reached 

 by them ; and some of those which grow in Scotland are marked with 

 an asterisk. 



BOOK NOTICES. 



A FAUNA OF THE NORTH-WEST HIGHLANDS AND SKYE. By 

 J. A. Harvie-Brown and Rev. H. A. Macpherson. Edinburgh : 

 David Douglas, 1904. 



In connection with the appearance of this volume, Mr. Harvie- 

 Brown is to be congratulated on several grounds. First, there is 

 the fact that we have in it an important addition to the volumes of 

 his great scheme for a complete series devoted to the Vertebrate 

 Fauna of Scotland. Secondly, and we are sure this will give 

 great satisfaction to British naturalists, the valuable manuscripts 

 relating to Skye, the result of years of personal experience and 

 patient labour on the part of the late Rev. H. A. Macpherson, now 

 see the light, and this, too, in their original state. These are 

 unedited, and thus retain all their original freshness, which is 

 especially gratifying, since they include many field notes on the 

 habits, etc., of the birds in which he was wont to delight. Another 

 matter for satisfaction is the title bestowed upon the book. We 

 are glad to see " North- West Highlands and Skye " substituted for 

 the singularly inappropriate one of "West Ross," which has hitherto 

 done duty for the faunal area which comprises the western portions 

 of the counties of Sutherland and Ross-shire, the north-west portion 

 of Inverness-shire, and the Isle of Skye. 



The book, like the others of the series already published, gives 

 much information relating to the various species of Vertebrates, 

 and their distribution within the area. Special attention should be 

 called to the very thorough manner in which Mr. Harvie-Brown has 

 worked out the past history of that now, alas, banished Scottish bird, 

 the Osprey, within the area which once knew it so well, and to which 

 it was an ornament in the eyes of all interested in Natural History. 

 This important and valuable contribution occupies twenty-eight 

 pages, and is illustrated by five full-page plates and by ten minor 

 pictures in the text. -W. E. C. 



NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BELL ROCK. By J. 

 M. Campbell, with an Introduction by James Murdoch. Edinburgh : 

 David Doulgas, 1904. 



"These desultory notes," we are told in the preface, "were 



