Recent Ornithological Publications. 239 



specific name, has also occurred in the county, and the specimen 

 may be seen in the fine Museum at Norwich. 



In Mr. Colquhoun's ' Sporting Days' ^ we find two ornitho- 

 logical facts which require record here. The first is the obser- 

 vation by the author himself of three examples of Mergus cucul- 

 latus (pp. 20, 21) in the Firth of Forth, on the 5th May, 1853, 

 as he has kindly informed us ; and the second, that in the Isle 

 of Bute, on two occasions, Corvus corone and C, comix were 

 found paired and breeding together (p. 104). "In both cases 

 the females were black and the males grey." 



In 1862 three gentlemen, who, we are glad to say, have since 

 cast in their lot among the ' Ibis ' brotherhood, betook them- 

 selves to Iceland in the then sanguine hope of finding there the 

 breeding-quarters of some of those birds whose summer-haunts 

 have so long been the puzzle of every ornithologist — egg- 

 dealers (if they are to be believed) excepted. Two of them, 

 Messrs. Shepherd and Upcher, as our readers know, have sub- 

 sequently won glory in the Holy Land by joining the memorable 

 crusade led by that successful follower of Peter the Hermit, 

 Mr. Tristram ; and the first has now, in an amusing little book, 

 given us an account of their Icelandic experiences five years 

 years agof. Our three friends in the course of their tour visited 

 a part of the island previously unattempted by any English 

 traveller, after endeavouring in vain to establish themselves for 

 the season on the bleak Arnarvatns-heiSi. They were more 

 successful in their efforts at Myvatn. The worst of the book is 

 that there is so little ornithology in it ; but as the expedition 

 was expressly undertaken in the interest of our science it is only 

 right we should here notice it. 



From the notice prefixed "to a little pamphlet J which Mr. 



* Sporting Days. By John Colquhoun. Edinbugli and London: 

 1866. Small 8vo, pp. 255. 



t The North-west Peninsula of Iceland: being the Journal of a Tour 

 in Iceland in the Spring and Summer of 1862. By C. W. Shepherd, 

 M.A., F.Z.S. London: 1867. Fcp. 8vo, pp. 162. 



I Birds found in INIalta and Gozo, with their English, Maltese, and 

 Latin names. By William Grant. LaValetta: 1866. 



