REVIEWS 



The Birds of Dumfriesshire. A Contribution to the Fauna of 

 the Solway Area. By Hugh S. Gladstone. Illustrated. 

 Witherby & Co. 25s. net. 



A WORK on the birds of a Scottish county is a novelty, though 

 there are papers of varied length on the birds of most of the 

 counties of the Scottish south-west, e.g., Kirkcudbrightshire, 

 Ayrshire and Wigtownshire, and East Renfrew. None looking 

 at the map of Dumfriesshire with which the volume under 

 notice is furnished, can fail to see that this county makes 

 a good geographical division. With its general slope to the 

 south, its three parallel valleys, coursed respectively by the 

 Nith, the Annan and the Esk, its " northern battlements " 

 of hills which extend down the east and west to shut it off 

 from neighbouring counties on these sides, and its sea-front 

 to the south , it forms a tolerably satisfactory unit. The variety 

 of the physical features within its limits, and the industry of 

 Sir William Jardine formerly, and Mr. Robert Service and Mr. 

 Gladstone recently, no doubt in part account for the satis- 

 factory total of two hundred and eighteen species of which 

 its avifauna consists. 



Mr. Gladstone has carried out his labour of love faithfully 

 and well, and is to be congratulated heartily on the completion 

 of a work which makes ornithologists generally, and Scottish 

 ornithologists particularly, his debtors. 



Changes in the method of agriculture, the area under cultiva- 

 tion, the subjects cultivated, the increase of planting, the 

 action of man as a destroyer all the time and a more or less 

 intelligent protector recently, and gradual climatic changes 

 over long periods (though this last is hypothetical) have all 

 in some degree contributed to the alteration in the status 

 of many birds. The causes of some changes remain obscure, 

 none of the reasons above mentioned appearing satisfactory as 

 explanations, but from whatever causes arising the changes 

 are many, and must strike anyone who carefully peruses 

 Mr. Gladstone's work. 



Some of the changes which are hardly open to doubt may 

 be mentioned : The Swallow is decreasing, and a " lament- 

 able " decrease of the House-Martin is recorded ; the Haw- 

 finch " would seem to be " extending its breeding-range ; the 

 Goldfinch, formerly abundant and latterly a scarce resident, 

 has nested recently, though not regularly, " in nearly every 



