550 lieceiitlii published Ornitholugical Works. [Ibis, 



welcomed an extension of the references to the Gieat 

 Auk {Alca wipennis^ concerning which bird a vast fund 

 of unpublished information is to be found in the late 

 Professor Newton's MS. *' Garefowl Book" in the Newton 

 Library at Cambridge. 



In addition to the copious extracts furnished from 

 printed works, Mr. Gurney has gathered a valuable fund 

 of information from unpublished Household Accounts and 

 kindred sources, and in particular he is able^ in iiis nintli 

 chapter, to make important additions to that portion of 

 the " Le Strange Household Accounts " first published 

 in 1834< by Mr, D. Gurney in vol. xxv. of ' Arch^eologia.' 

 These constitute a valuable and interesting description of 

 the various birds and other articles of food used in the 

 dotnestic economy of a Norfolk country house in the 

 sixteenth century. 



In conclusion, we must confess that we have seldom read 

 a more fascinating volume, or one that carries back the 

 imagination more vividly to the " good old days " ; and 

 as we turn over the pages we can readily visualise what 

 excitement must have reigned at Hunstanton Hall when 

 the first bird — albeit merely a " Watter hen " — was " killed 

 wt the gun '' on that autumn day in 1533, and wish we 

 could have witnessed the great spectacle at Kenilworth * 

 some forty years later, when among other pleasing devices 

 a bridge was prepared for Queen Elizabeth to pass over, 

 where " upon the first payr of posts were set too cumly 

 square wyre cages, each a three feet long, too foot wide : 

 and by in them live bitters, curluz, shoovelarz, hearsheawz, 

 godvvitz, and such like dainty byrds, of the presents of 

 Sylvanus the god of Food."— W. H. M. 



HanJdn on Soaring Flight. 



[The Problem of Soaring- Flight. By E. H. Ilankiu. With an 

 introduction by F. Ilandley Page, C.B.E. Proc. Cambridge Philos. 

 Soc. XX. 1921, pp. 219-227.] 



Dr. Hankin, the Chemical Examiner to the Government 



* P. 181, 'Annals.' 



