REVIEWS 



Bird-Life of the Borders. By Abel Chapman, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. 



Map and illustrations. G-uruey & Jackson. 14s. net. 

 This is a new and revised edition of perhaps the best known of 

 Mr. Abel Chapman's charming works. The author is essentially 

 an outdoor naturalist, and that he is a keen as well as a cautious 

 and systematic observer this book abundantly testifies. He takes 

 us delightfully through the year over the moorlands dividing 

 England and Scotland, where for many a long year he has studied 

 the habits and movements of the birds. Nor does he lack in 

 experience of the coast, and the second half of the book is devoted 

 to shore and sea birds, and especially to the wildfowl. Drawing 

 on a gi-eat store of anecdote, he gives accounts, ever charming to 

 the naturalist-sportsman, of many an eventful day and night 

 with punt and gun on the bleak Northumberland coast. Not 

 only has Mr. Chapman the faculty of describing what lie sees 

 (and he sees a great deal) in an enchanting fashion, but, as is 

 evidenced by the capital chapters on migration, he can sum up 

 and set forth most clearly and satisfactorily the main issues 

 hidden in a mass of facts and theories. But we would recommend 

 the book mainly because it is brimful of first-hand observation 

 from the book of Nature which seems to lie wide open to Mr. 

 Chapman's eye. It may be worth while to point out that the 

 " drumming ' of the snipe is attributed to the wings (p. 49), 

 whereas Mr. P. H. Bahr has lately demonstrated very clearly 

 that this noise is made by certain feathers in the tail. There is 

 a curious slip on page 87, where the author states that " the 

 plumage acquired by every bird in autumn must serve it for a 

 year," whereas, as Mr. Chapman himself writes in another part 

 of his book, some birds moult also in sj^ring. 



BOOKS ON BRITISH BIRDS 



Published in June. 



Grouse Disease : What it is and How it Sjireads, with Sur/gestions for 

 Stamping out Disease, by the Rev. E. Adrian Woodruffe-Peacock. 

 (Louth : Goulding.) 5s. 



Birds and Their Nests and Egrjs Found In and Near Great Toivns, 

 by George H. Vos, B.A., M.B.(Cantab.). (Routledge.) Is. 



British Birds' Nests ; How, Where, and Wheii to Find and Identify 

 Them, by Richard Kearton, F.Z.S. Illustrated. (Cassell.) 21s. 



Notes on the Birds of Nottinghamshire, by J. Whitaker. (Nottingham : 

 Wm. Black & Sons.) i2s. 6d. 



