Reviezvs.



306



food shortness, but it lias interested many as a miracle or some

unsolved mystery rather than an example of impel feet instinct

supplemented by intelligence. The food theory, however, does

not explain why the males leave in July, as they do, before the

females, unless the latter remain in the face of scarcity to

continue depositing their eggs; nor does it explain why the

males are the first to arrive. The rarity of the whole incident,

and the fact that I received many letters from readers of the

Spectator commenting upon my first letter, induces me to send

the complete account. Robert Jones, M.D.


[In the Zoologist, 1S44, p. 655, there is a note of a Cuckoo that had

been kept in confinement over a winter. The notes given of its food and

disposition agree closely with those given by Dr. Jones. Dr. Jones’, how¬

ever, began to moult in the October of its second year. The one recorded

in the Zoologist in May, when about twelve months old, and one we kept

commenced its moult in April. So far as we are aware these are the only

recorded instances of this species being kept through the winter in con¬

finement. Many have at various times been on exhibition at the Zoological

Gardens, but 110 records of their moult or the age to which they lived are

available.—E d.]



REVIEWS.


NORTH’S AUSTRALIAN NESTS AND EGGS*


We have received for notice in this journal the first part of

Volume III. of the second edition of Mr. North’s well-known

work 011 the nests and eggs of Australian birds. I11 it the author

deals with the Family Cuculidce and the Sub-family Centropinw ;

the Family Lon'idce and part of the Family Cacatuidcc.


Although primarily concerned, as the title explains, with

the nests and eggs, this work also contains detailed descriptions

of the birds themselves, their distribution and habits.


The author deals exhaustively with his subject, supplying

notes from correspondents in all parts of Australia. The accounts

given of the birds that we are familiar with in captivity here, will

be read with great interest by avicnlturists.


Of the capture of the Musk Lorikeet ( Glossopsittacus

concinnusj, a species now rarely imported, although not difficult



Nests and Eggs of Birds found breeding in Australia and Tasmania by Alfred J. North,

C.M.Z.S., &c., Ornithologist to the Australian Museum. Vol. III. Part 1 .



