1896.] A New Bird-Book. 207 



(of course local) experience Quails show no partiality whatever 

 for wheat-lands, but, if their distribution indicates a choice, 

 prefer barley. In England, certainly, the Quail's decrease 

 set in long before it did here ; and though wheat has never 

 ceased to be extensively grown in that country, Quails, 

 according to Mr. More {IbiSy 1865) had more than thirty years 

 ago almost ceased to breed regularly in Britain. Moreover, 

 Quails abounded in Elizabethan Ireland, scarcely a paradise of 

 wheat-growers. The enormous numbers yearly netted on the 

 Mediterranean passage have suggested another explanation, 

 but apparently this cause had not, till quite recently, affected 

 their abundance on the Continent ; in 1892 Mr. More {Irish 

 Sportsman, May 21) cited evidence to the negative. Still it is 

 refreshing to learn that the French Government now strenu- 

 ously combats this traffic ; giving us additional grounds 

 for hope, that, should caprice of climate again fetch it to 

 nest with us for a few successive seasons, the Quail's lost 

 habit of annually visiting our shores may be re-acquired. 



A NP:W BIRD-BOOK. 



A Concise Handbook of British Birds. By H. Kirke Swann. 

 IvOiidon : J. Wheldon and Co., 1896. 3^. 6d. 



The portableness and cheapness of this Utile volume fairly justify its 

 claim to serve as a *' handy text-book for reference that has had as yet no 

 rivals." It purports to give some account of every species occurring in 

 the British Islands, defining the habitat, or range in the breeding season, 

 of each, with brief descriptions (except where these are held to be un- 

 necessary) of plumage, nidification, and general habits. To fulfil this 

 task within the limits of 208 fcap. 8vo. pages was somewhat of a tour de 

 force, and it must be added that the type of the book is good and not 

 overcrowded. The principal shortcomings are such as might, under the 

 circumstances, have been expected. Conciseness frequently degenerates 

 into vagueness, as where a species is merely stated to nest in the 

 •* Northern Palaearctic region." The uselessness of this phrase becomes 

 apparent when we find it applied without further detail to the breeding 

 areas of such a heterogeneous assortment of birds as the Merlin, Black 

 Grouse, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Tengmalm's Owl, and Jack Snipe ! 

 We should certainly be surprised to hear of the last named species nesting 

 either with Tetrao tetrix, in the Apennines, or, with Dendrocopus minor^ iu 



