REVIEWS 503 



No index is provided, which seems a serious defect in a book that will 

 certainly be used a great deal for reference. Since the author states that he 

 has hunted out most of the known cuckoo literature, a bibliography would 

 have been welcomed by most readers. The appendix, giving the weights 

 of cockoos' eggs, is of great interest and lends remarkable support to some 

 of the author's observations. The work involved was done by Mr. P. F. 

 Bunyard. 



Whatever criticisms one may make, there is no doubt that Mr. Chance's 

 work is a landmark in ornithological field methods of to-day. He has 

 thoroughly aroused universal interest in his subject — a tribute well worthy 

 of the untiring efforts that made it possible for him to arrange for the cine- 

 matograph to be on the right spot to film the laying of the cuckoo's egg and 

 to expose to the world her secret. 



W. R. 



ANTHBOFOLOGY 



Prehistory. By M. C. Burkitt, M.A., F.G.S. [Pp. xx + 438, with 47 

 plates.] (Cambridge University Press, 192 1. Price 35s.) 



Books of first-class merit dealing with prehistoric man appear in this country 

 at the rate of about one a year, and this work by Mr. Burkitt is the latest 

 addition to the series. It might appear that another volume on this much- 

 discussed subject would prove superfluous, but in reality this is not so. The 

 chief English books only partially duplicate one another. In the different 

 books the stress is laid on different aspects of prehistory. James Geikie 

 deals more attractively with the geology of the Pleistocene than does any 

 other writer. Sollas gives the geology and also includes accounts of living 

 savages. Osbom gives a popular and pleasant, though hastily compiled, 

 description of the men of the Old Stone Age. Keith discusses the anatomical 

 aspects of the subject with unparalleled thoroughness. And now we have 

 Mr. Burldtt's beautifully produced work, of which the appropriate sub-title is 

 " A Study of Early Cultures in Europe and the Mediterranean Basin." The 

 author is concerned with the culture and industries of the peoples, rather than 

 with the peoples themselves. It is essentially a book on prehistoric archeo- 

 logy, or rather, on pateolithic archasology (the later periods are treated only 

 cursorily) ; and quite a secondary position is given to the geological and 

 anatomical aspects of the subject. This is quite as it should be. There 

 was a call for such a work with the stress on the archaeology ; and Mr. Burkitt, 

 who has a first-hand knowledge of many of the famous French and Spanish 

 prehistoric caverns, has given us an excellent and very complete and detailed 

 study of this side of the subject. 



The book contains twenty-two chapters, of which all except four may be 

 described as archaeological, the descriptions of palaeolithic art being naturally 

 very full. Thus Chapter VI deals with " Lower Paleolithic Civilisations," 

 Chapter VII with " Mousterian Civilisation," Chapter IX with " The Aurig- 

 nacian Age," Chapter XI with " The Magdalenian Age," and Chapter XX 

 with " Eastern Spanish Art." All these chapters have an amount of detail 

 in them which English readers will not find elsewhere, and the text is illus- 

 trated by a magnificent series of plates, which are conveniently aggregated 

 at the end of the volume. The author gives an outline of the geological 

 and anatomical aspects of prehistory only sufficient to make his archaeology 

 comprehensible. There are two chapters on geology, in which the author 

 wisely assumes that his readers are completely ignorant of this subject. In 

 the main, the elementary exposition in Chapter II is good, but he forgets to 

 explain the meaning of the word Pleistocene ; and, moreover, the term 

 " Quaternary " is ordinarily used to connote both Pleistocene and Recent, 

 not Pleistocene only. Mr. Burkitt is in good geological company in using 

 the terms Tertiary and Quaternary, but they are nevertheless mischievous 



