GLEANINGS 2 6 3 



eyrie, until the young were fledged and ready to fly, the author tells step 

 by step of the progress and growth of these attractive birds, and one 

 may safely say that this study of the peregrine is quite unique and full 

 of the most valuable observations. The photographs deserve the 

 highest praise, and have indeed touched the high- water maik of excel- 

 lence. It is needless to point out the unfailing patience and skill which 

 must have been required from both author and photographer before such 

 a book could have been produced. We trust they will not think us 

 ungrateful if we have one adverse criticism to make, namely, our dislike 

 to the facetious headings of the pages ; such expressions as " You may 

 hide, Sarah, but I'll see him farther" ; or, "Golly, I've left the lens at 

 home," seem to us both irritating and out of place in a work which is 

 really a valuable and most excellent contribution to the study of the life 

 of the finest bird in our native fauna. There is an excellent appendix 

 and index to this book, and the type is of the best. G. E. G. M. 



GLEANINGS 



We regret to record the decease, on 2nd September last, of Pro- 

 fessor Odo Morannal Reuter, the distinguished authority on Hemiptera- 

 Heteroptera. Although a native of Finland, Professor Reuter published 

 many important articles in the Journals of other countries, and in the 

 seventies visited the Orkney and Shetland Islands, where he made 

 extensive collections in all Orders of Insects. Some of the results were 

 published in the pages of the Scottish Naturalist, and formed an im- 

 portant contribution to our knowledge of the fauna of these northern 

 islands. 



In the Annals and Magazine of Natural History for October 1913 

 appears, on pp. 361-368, an article by G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton and 

 Martin A. C. Hinton, entitled "Three New Voles from the Inner 

 Hebrides, Scotland." The new forms in question are Evotomys erica, a 

 new species from Raasay, and two new subspecies of Microtus agrcstis 

 from Eigg and Muck respectively. The subspecific names applied to 

 these forms are mial and Inch. We should like to learn the etymology 

 of these, to us, somewhat uncouth names ! 



In the October number of British Birds Mr Witherby has an 

 elaborate paper on the sequence of plumages of the rook, with special 

 reference to the moult of the "face," illustrated by eight plates. The 

 result of his findings is shortly as follows : Juvenile plumage 

 Acquired in the nest, the down-plumage being completely moulted. 

 First winter plumage Acquired by a complete moult, with the excep- 

 tion of the flight feathers, bastard wing, primary coverts, the greater 

 coverts (excepting the two innermost) and the tail feathers. First summer 

 plumage Acquired by abrasion and fading, excepting the nasal and 



