KTWW5 



The Home-Life of the Terns. Photograi)hcd and described 

 by W. Bickerton, M.B.O.U. Cro^\Ti 4to., 88 pp. and 

 32 mounted plates. (Witherby & Co., London.) 6s. 

 net. 



The issue of a new volume of Messrs. Witherby & Co.'s; 

 Home-Life series has become an annual event, and one looked 

 torward to with pleasurable anticipation by all lovers of bird- 

 life. The volume Avhich has just appeared is uniform in all 

 respects with its predecessors, and it may be said at once, 

 that the standard has been fully maintained both in regard 

 to the letterpress and the reproduction of the plates. The 

 author is well kno\Mi as one of the chief exponents of the 

 bird-photographer's art in these islands, and we expect a high 

 standard of work from such hands as his ; nor are we 

 disappointed, for on examination of his plates, we find but 

 few points for criticism either in their generally high tech- 

 nical level or their pictorial qualities. They are also well 

 chosen as illustrations of the different points in the letter- 

 press, and of the various habits and attitudes of the birds 

 at their nests. 



The intense enthusiasm of the author and his real sympathy 

 Avith the birds in their home-life is evident in ever}' page of 

 his writing, which in a separate chapter devoted to each of the 

 five British breeding species of Terns, contains a very full 

 and readable account of their habits as observed at two of 

 the largest English colonies. On several points, such as the 

 average number of eggs in the clutch in certain species, the 

 author differs from the generally accepted idea, but it must 

 be remembered that he is only stating facts as observed by 

 him in two restricted areas, and it may well be, if indeed it 

 is not proved, that the fertility of this group varies in different 

 regions. 



We note that the author affirms the under water plunge 

 of all five species when feeding, a fact that Avas at one time 

 greatly doubted, and although definitely recorded Avith regard 

 to the Arctic Tern, and probably Avell knoANH to many A\ith 

 regard to one or more of the other species, we do not remember 

 to have seen it established in print with regard to all. A very 

 acceptable item is the table given on page 33. of the number 

 of eggs of the Sandwich Tern foimd by the Avatcher at RaA-en- 

 glass during the thirteen years that this colonj- has been 



