EDITORIAL 27 



nightly, observations made are narrated in ample detail in 

 the paper under the three divisions, Pre-nesting Period, 

 Nesting Period, and Post-nesting Period. A summary of 

 the deductions to be drawn from these observations would 

 have added much to the value of the paper. Whatever 

 light it may shed on the behaviour of the nightbirds, it 

 bears eloquent testimony to the patience and tenacity of the 

 observers in carrying out their self-imposed task. 



In the January number of British Birds (vol. ix., pp. 

 197-208) no fewer than six species and subspecies are 

 recorded as new to the British List. They are the following : 

 Moustached Warbler {Lnsciniola nielanopogcm vielanopogon), 

 Olivaceous Warbler (^Hypolais pallida pallida), North African 

 Black Wheatear {CEnanihe leucura syeniticd), Cape Verde 

 Little Shearwater {Piiffiii/ts assimilis boj'di), North Atlantic 

 Great Shearwater {Puffimis knhlii borealis), and Grey-rumped 

 Sandpiper {Tringa incana brevipcs'). It appears to us not a 

 little remarkable that all these birds were picked up or shot 

 on the coast of Sussex within a limit of twenty miles. We 

 should have liked more precise details regarding the actual 

 capture of these birds. 



The libraries of our British entomologists have received 

 a welcome addition through the publication of an important 

 volume on Ants, by H. St. J. K. Donisthorpe.^ In the 

 limited space at our disposal it is impossible to do justice to 

 a book consisting of '^^Ji closely printed pages, stored as 

 they are with an immense number of facts, and we may 

 therefore remark at once that the work, which embodies the 

 results of over twenty years' continuous labour and research, 

 is quite indispensable to the student of British Hymenoptera. 

 We are much pleased with the general appearance and 

 arrangement of the book, its clear and well selected type, 

 and the unusual abundance of excellent illustrations. The 

 systematic part of the volume is preceded by several sections 

 (there are no " chapters ") giving a clear and sufficiently 

 detailed account of the structure, external and internal, of 

 ants in general, after which follow others of perhaps wider 

 interest, since they deal with the details of life and habit 

 ^ British Ants, their Life-history and Ciassijication, 19 15. 



