262 Reviews. [,,fXprii 



[" A Naturalist on Desert Islands." By Percy R. Lowe, B.A. Witherby 

 and Co., London.] 



Few books of travel are more fascinating than those which de- 

 scribe the wanderings of naturahsts. Darwin's " Voyage of the 

 Beagle," Wallace's " Malay Archipelago," Bates's " Naturalist on 

 the Amazon," and Sir Joseph Hooker's " Himalayan Journals," 

 are the classics of this class of literature ; but every year the 

 library of natural history voyages and travels is increased. Few 

 of the modern volumes can compare with the older ones, because 

 they are so often written by men, or women, in a hurry ; the old 

 leisurely years have gone. Mr. Lowe's book, if it lacks distinc- 

 tion as a literary production, is delightful to read, for it deals 

 with remote islands, where man has rarely been, and who can 

 resist the romance of the little lands of the sea ? 



For six consecutive winters Mr. Lowe has accompanied Sir 

 Frederic Johnstone and Lady Wilton, his wife, on yachting cruises 

 in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. On these voyages 

 nearly every island in the two basins was visited, but the present 

 volume is devoted to Swan Islands, Blanquilla Island, and the 

 Hermanos Islands, all of which are sea-bird haunts. The Swan 

 Islands are at the western end of the Caribbean Sea — " anchored 

 like floating gardens on the placid surface of a sapphire sea " — 

 and on the smaller of the two Frigate-Birds and Gannets nest in 

 great numbers. The nests of the Frigate-Birds are built on the 

 tops of the trees, whose branches are interlaced, making an arboreal 

 platform. Occasionally a bird, when scrambling about the 

 branches, loses its balance, and, in falling, becomes caught in a 

 fork and is strangled. Mr. Lowe observed that the birds " live 

 a good deal on floating animal refuse, which they pick up daintily 

 off the surface." 



The illustrations in "A Naturalist on Desert Islands " are 

 interesting, but some of them have suffered in reproduction. The 

 book is well printed and neatly bound — a desirable acquisition to 

 the naturalist's library. 



[" Nest and Eggs of Birds Found Breeding in Australia and Tasmania." 

 By Alfred J. North, C.M.Z.S., &c., Ornithologist to the Australian Museum.] 



Part iii. of volume iii. of this work has been issued. It is a con- 

 tinuation of the Order Accipitres, and contains the sub-family 

 AccipitrincB (commenced on the last page of part ii.), the sub-family 

 ButeonincB, and the greater portion of the sub-family Aqtiilince-. 

 The figures of eggs, which are natural size, are reproduced by the 

 heliotype process from photographs taken under the direction of 

 the Government Printer and the supervision of Mr. A. E. Dyer. 

 The illustrations of the birds are reproduced from drawings made 

 by the late Mr. Neville Cayley, who also hand-coloured the plates 

 of eggs in the coloured copies. 



This part is particularly interesting, as it deals with a favourite 

 group of birds, and is full of first-hand field-notes from the author's 



