1893- SOME NEW BOOKS. 67 



to the probability of its being the ancestor of the domestic breeds. 

 The most interesting of all is, however, the seventh chapter, which 

 treats of the Pyrenean wild goat. Mr. Buxton says that, in contra- 

 diction to the true Ibex, this animal largely frequents scrub-jungle, 

 and he points out — we believe for the first time — that the inward 

 inclination of the tips of its horns is evidently adapted to passing 

 with ease among bushes, the true Ibex, which inhabit open country, 

 having the tips of their horns divergent. 



Other chapters, relating to Reindeer and Bear, do not call for 

 special notice, and we accordingly conclude by congratulating both 

 author and publisher on the production of a work which, while 

 written professedly for the sportsman, contains much that is 

 deserving- of the best attention of the naturalist. R. L. 



Our Country's Birds, and How to Know Them. By W. J. Gordon. Crown 

 8vo. Pp. viii., 152. Illustrated. London ; Day & Son, 1892. Price 6s. 



Mr. W. J. Gordon is already well known as the author of "Our 

 Country's Flowers," which has attained a well-merited reputation as 

 a handy and convenient guide to the British flora. In the work 

 before us he has treated the birds of Britain in a somewhat similar 

 fashion, the result being a volume which contains, perhaps, more 

 information in a small compass than any other of equal size which 

 has come under our notice. The great feature of Mr. Gordon's work 

 is that every species is illustrated, and that, too, by a coloured figure, 

 and since these figures have been executed by Messrs. Willis and 

 Holding, any comment as to the excellence of their execution would 

 be superfluous. Mr. Gordon, we are glad to see, rather ridicules the 

 idea of including such birds as the Flamingo under the title of British, 

 but as the species has occurred in the British islands, he is perforce 

 compelled to include it in his list. 



The great object of the volume is to enable any person to identify 

 any bird he may happen to come across in the British Islands, and 

 for this purpose Mr. Gordon provides us with an elaborately worked- 

 out system of "keys." He is, however, careful to add that this is 

 merely an empirical method, and has nothing to do with classifica- 

 tion. Other chapters deal, however, fully with the classificatory 

 portion of the subject, in the course of which the peculiarities of the 

 bones of the skull in the different groups, as well as the subject of 

 pterylosis, are briefly but carefully treated. An unique feature in 

 the book is the series of tables of dimensions of all the British species. 



We may point out that in including Pandiom.m.ongihe Falconidse 

 the author is not up to date, we ourselves being persuaded of the 

 correctness of the view that this genus represents an order connecting 

 the Accipitres with the Striges. We cannot, moreover, accept the 

 inclusion of all the Passerines in a single family " Passeridae." 



These, however, are comparatively small defects, and the author 

 is to be congratulated on having given such a large amount of infor- 

 mation on British birds in such an exceedingly small compass. 



R. L. 



The Building of the British Isles : A Study in Geographical Evolution. By 

 A. J. Jukes-Browne, B.A., F.G.S. Second edition. Pp. xiv., 465. 8vo. 

 London : George Bell & Sons, 1892. Price 7s. 6d. 



One object of geological enquiry is to picture the physical conditions 

 that attended the deposition of the many geological formations. In 

 its most interesting aspect, the subject is inseparably connected with 



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