2 4 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



BOOK NOTICES 



Our Common Sea-birds : Cormorants, Terns, Gulls, Skuas, 

 Petrels, and Auks. By Percy R. Lowe, B.A., M.B., C.B., 

 London. Published at the offices of Coimtry Life. Price 15s. net. 



This is a handsome large-8vo volume devoted to a series of 

 interesting articles on our marine birds, chiefly from the pen of Dr 

 Lowe, but with special contributions by other writers. Though the 

 letterpress is excellent, yet the chief attraction of the book lies in the 

 great wealth and beauty of the illustrations, some 240 in number, all 

 good, and some among the best we have ever seen. We note one or 

 two errors which we think it desirable to point out in case future editions 

 are called for. In enumerating the breeding-places of the Gannet, 

 Sule Skerry is mentioned ; it should be Sule Stack, an island a few 

 miles south of the Skerry. At St Kilda the great Gannet colony on the 

 island of Boreray whose grandeur as a sea-bird haunt is unsurpassed 

 in British seas is not mentioned. Another error is the assertion that 

 the incubation period of the Storm Petrel is seven weeks ; we are able 

 to aver, from personal researches, that this is two weeks in excess of 

 the correct time. 



Flies in Relation to Disease Non-Bloodsucking Flies. By 

 G. S. Graham-Smith, M.D. Cambridge University Press, 1913, 

 8vo., pp. xiv. and 292, 24 plates and 32 figures. Price 10s. 6d. net. 



During the past year or two it has been shown that many common 

 flies which inhabit dwellings, even though not addicted to blood-sucking, 

 are nevertheless important agents in the spread of certain diseases. 

 The appearance of the present volume, which forms one of the 

 "Cambridge Public Health Series," may therefore be welcomed as a 

 most useful summary of our present knowledge of the subject. The 

 author's position as an authority on hygiene stamps the book with the 

 mark of accuracy, while the masterly manner in which the subject is 

 treated renders the work of great value, especially to the student and 

 others who desire an account of the life-histories of the domestic flies 

 and their relation to disease within a reasonable compass. The general 

 get-up of the volume and the quality of the numerous illustrations are, 

 as might be expected, all that could be desired. 



