Recent Ornithological Publications. 179 



urogallus), Black-Cock {T. tetrix), and Golden Eagle {Aquila 

 chrysaetus), as observed by the author in Southern Germany. 

 The custom of shooting the males of the two first-mentioned 

 species just prior to the breeding-time is not confined to Scandi- 

 navia. Of the last Mr. Boner says (p. 162), *Uhat it has fre- 

 quently been seen soaring above the summit of the Wetterhorn 

 and the Eiger Mountains, whose heights are 1 1,413 feet and 

 12,240 feet respectively." The extraordinary bird^s-nesting feat 

 of the amateur acrobat, Count Arco, which found its way into 

 the newspapers last summer, is fully recounted. Mr. Boner's 

 criticisms (pp. 176-8) on the knowledge of Eagles possessed by 

 Sir Humphry Davy and Professor Wilson are not, we think, 

 altogether to the purpose. The bird spoken of by the author of 

 * Salmonia,' which " dashes into the water, falling like a rock, 

 and raising a column of spray," was of course an Osprey [Pandion 

 haliaetus), and the action was no unwonted sight to that accom- 

 plished fisherman. Further, we suspect that in former days in 

 Scotland it was " the commoner occurrence for there to be several 

 eaglets in a nest," as is to be inferred from ' Christopher North's ' 

 expressions. We know of many instances in which two have 

 been so found ; indeed a case is recorded in our last volume 

 (' Ibis,' 1860, p. 112) ; and, if we are not misinformed, Mr. Wol- 

 ley on one occasion discovered three fertile eggs in a Golden 

 Eagle's nest. Mr. Boner has great cause to complain of his 

 engraver, who has contrived to mar the skill of the artist by his 

 exceedingly coarse work. The tournament between the two 

 Black-Cocks is well conceived, and the absurd attitude of the 

 Capercaillie uttering his love-song — which we have here seen 

 depicted for the first time — is very good, though in both illustra- 

 tions the birds are mounted on legs suggestive of stronger 

 Columbine affinities than most ornithologists accord to the 

 Tetraonidce. 



In the 'Natural- History Review ' for January 1862 (pp. 26-52), 

 Mr. Lubbock has given an account of the archseontological 

 researches recently carried on in Switzerland, which is as full of 

 interest, if not of novelty, to the English public as his former 

 paper, noticed in our last Number ('Ibis,' 1862, p. 76). The 



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