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The Big Game of Centrai, and Western China. By II. F. 

 Wallace, F.R.G.S., F.Z.S. London : John Murray, 1913. 15s. net. 



Naturalists are under a debt of gratitude to those travellers who 

 furnish details of their wanderings in far-off lands. There is much 

 literature to choose from if one seeks for information about the fauna 

 of the African continent ; but books dealing with Northern Asiatic wild-life 

 are comparatively few and far between, and therefore we are specially 

 grateful to Mr Wallace, who possesses the qualifications of sportsman, 

 naturalist, draughtsman, and writer, for the book under notice. The 

 "Big Game of Central and Western China" is pleasant reading and 

 full of observation. Perhaps the most interesting chapters to the 

 naturalist will be those which deal with the Takin and White-maned 

 Serow, of which animals the author has much to say. The whole book 

 will, however, repay careful perusal, and it is utterly unmarred by any 

 spirit of killing, Mr Wallace being foremost a naturalist. The drawings 

 by the author are exceedingly pleasing, and a welcome change to the 

 endless photographic illustrations of to-day ; and last but not least are 

 two welcome maps and excellent type. G. G. M. 



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Our readers, like ourselves, will be gratified to learn of the election 

 of Colonel R. G. Wardlaw-Ramsay to the important office of President 

 of the British Ornithologists' Union. This distinction is the highest 

 that can be conferred by the ornithologists of Britain, and in selecting 

 our worthy countryman for the post we feel that no better choice could 

 have been made. The Union has only had two previous Presidents 

 during the fifty odd years of its existence, and Colonel Wardlaw-Ramsay 

 is a worthy successor to the two distinguished men who preceded him. 

 His ornithological studies in the East, extending over a number of 

 years spent in military service, resulted in a series of valuable papers 

 contributed to the pages of the Ibis, while the bulk of his extensive 

 collections, which included the monumental one formed by his uncle, the 

 Marquis of Tweeddale, were presented to the Natural History Museum, 

 South Kensington. It is interesting to add, however, that the Royal 

 Scottish Museum also shared in this valuable gift to the extent of many 

 hundreds of skins. 



We have received from the author, John W. Taylor, a copy of his 

 Presidential Address to the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, delivered at 

 Hull on 14th December last. The title of the address is " Dominancy 

 in Nature and its Correlation with Evolution, Phylogeny, and Geo- 

 graphical Distribution." The subject is a fascinating one, and the 

 author presents his ideas in an interesting and plausible fashion. The 

 main idea of the paper is that all the dominant or progressive types 

 of life originate in a central evolutionary area, whence they spread and 



