REVIEWS 127 



MASTIGOPHORA WOODSII, (HOOK.) NEES, IN INVERNESS-SHIRE. 

 By Symers M. Macvicar. Jonrn. Bot., 1898, pp. 103, 104. 

 Records this hepatic as found in some quantity at 500 and at 1200 

 feet altitude, in a ravine in Moidart. 



BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF BRITISH AND IRISH BOTANISTS. First 

 Supplement. By James Britten, F.L.S., and G. S. Boulger, F.L.S. 

 Journ. Bot., 1898, pp. 99-103. This supplement to the excellent 

 book published under the above title five years ago, is to include 

 all botanists that died in the years 1893-97, and a few omitted 

 from the book. This instalment extends from Acton to Blomefield. 



REVIEWS. 



WILD BIRDS PROTECTION ACTS, 1880-1896. By J. R. V. 

 Marchant, M.A. (Oxon.), of Gray's Inn, and Wat kin Watkins, B.A. 

 (Cantab.), of the Inner Temple, Member of the British Ornitholo- 

 gists' Union ; both of the Oxford Circuit, Barristers-at-Law. Second 

 Edition. (London: R. H. Porter, 1897.) 



It is now eighteen years since the first of the Wild Birds 

 Protection Acts now in force was passed. Since then three others 

 have been grafted on to it, while almost each year has seen one or 

 more Orders issued varying or extending the provisions of the Acts 

 in some part of the country. To the complex body of law so 

 created, Messrs. Marchant and Watkins have lately issued a welcome 

 handbook, which has now reached its second edition, and which 

 should be of the greatest assistance, not only to all who have the 

 administration or enforcement of the Acts in their charge, but to all 



O 7 



interested in the subject of wild bird protection. The book opens 

 with a concise statement of what is the common law of England 

 regarding wild animals and their capture, and a history of the 

 legislation under which in that country the protection and preserva- 

 tion of game and other animals ferce nature has been cared for. 

 Owing to material differences in the law of the two countries, how- 

 ever, these chapters of the book will be of more practical use in 

 England than in Scotland. But in Chapter IV. we have a very 

 careful analysis of the four recent statutes, which apply throughout 

 Great Britain, showing precisely what acts are and what are not 

 constituted offences under them. To legal practitioners this part 

 of the book should prove of great assistance, while to ornithologists 

 generally it will at least show that something yet remains to be done 

 before the interests of our wild birds can be considered as adequately 

 safeguarded. The text of the Acts follows, the various sections being 

 arranged, as they are intended to be read, as if they formed one 

 statute, so that the exact provisions of the law on each point can be 

 seen at a glance. Copious notes are appended to the sections. 



