62 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



NOTES ON THE DRAWINGS FOR ENGLISH BOTANY (Supplement 

 to Journ. Bot., 1903, pp. 97-120). By F. N. A. Garry, M.A. 

 Cnicus pratensis, Pyrola rotundi/olia. 



ON A RAMBLE ON THE MOOR AT BLAIR-ATHOLL. By Mary 

 L. Miles. Trans. Perthsh. S.JV.S., iii. pt. v. 1902-03, pp. 217-223. 



THE BACTERIA, OR SCHIZOMYCETES, AND THEIR PLACE IN 

 THE NATURAL SYSTEM. By John Lyell, M.D. Trans. P.S.1V.S., 

 1902-03, pp. 223-238. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL 

 SCIENCE. Address by Henry Coates, the President, " Notes of 

 Excursions in 1902," several rare or local plants being mentioned. 



OBITUARY NOTICE OF CHARLES STUART, M.D. By Com- 

 mander F. M. Norman. Hist. Berwicksh. Nat. Club, xviii. pp. 171- 



175- 



BOOK NOTICES. 



DIE VOGEL DER PALAARKTISCHEN FAUNA. Systematische 

 Ubersicht der in Europa, nord Asien und der Mittelmeerregion 

 vorkommenden Vogel. Von Ernst Hartert. Heft I. Mit 22 

 Abbildungen. Berlin : Friedliinder und Sohn, 1903. 



It is admittedly a most difficult task to write a work on birds, 

 especially one including our own, which is thoroughly original in 

 the treatment of its subject. Mr. Hartert has succeeded in ac- 

 complishing this in a manner which is remarkable, not to say 

 phenomenal, in his new book on the Palsearctic Birds. It naturally 

 follows that there is much to discuss and to criticise. Here we can 

 only state that there are features which we must accept with 

 gratitude ; while there are others which may be regarded as 

 optionally at our service if we care to adopt them. 



Regarding the former, Mr. Hartert has had the courage to 

 tackle the extremely difficult task of defining the geographical 

 races to be found among a number of the Palsearctic species. A 

 knowledge of these is of the utmost importance, particularly so 

 to all who are interested in the British avifauna, for our Islands 

 are regularly receiving visitors from the Continent, and it is a 

 decided gain to be able to determine whence some at least of them 

 come ; but, further than this, a fair number of our native species 

 have peculiarities of plumage, etc., which are essentially their own, 

 and to some of these attention is drawn for the first time. As 

 to the optional features, the Author has given names, by a free 

 use of trinomials, to all the racial forms he describes ; has adopted 

 the tenth edition of Linnseus's "Systema Naturae" (1758) as a 

 starting point for his nomenclature, and has adhered rigidly (and 



