c)6 The Oologists' Record, December i, 1922. 



Perhaps the most interesting chapter is that on " The Home 

 Life of the Shearwater," and, if the eggs were not so utterly wanting 

 in variation as to limit the cupidity of the most callous collector, 

 we should doubt the wisdom of betraying the exact locality. 

 " There are not," he writes, " rabbit-burrows enough for the Shear- 

 water colony, and by far the greater number of the birds lay 

 their single white egg in some deep crack or hole amongst the 

 rocks." The author relates curious things about the behaviour 

 of the Shearwaters during a heavy rainfall or in fog. " As the 

 birds came flying swiftly round the hill, passing unseen in the 

 darkness, within a few yards of the house — ' in the doorway,' our 

 host expressed it — we heard what sounded like an emphatic 

 ' it-y-corka,' the emphasis on the third syllable, and other loud 

 remarks — ' kitty-coo-roo,' ' kok-a-kok,' sharply repeated, and 

 ' kok-a-go-go,' all uttered with a vehemence which was perfectly 

 astonishing. The birds flew swiftly, following one another ; at 

 times there was a moment's silence, then a babel of voices." 



Mr. Coward's chapters on the struggle for existence in the bird 

 world, and the effect of importations such as that of the Little Owl 

 and the Grey Squirrel, are full of interesting facts and conjectures. 

 He makes us wonder if the Grey Squirrels, but recently arrived in 

 our home woods, should be allowed to establish themselves, for 

 from such causes, as he explains, come profound changes in the 

 distribution and number of our birds. 



The author grudges and misjudges the interest of the oologist ; 

 but, closely in touch as we are with oologists in all parts of the 

 world, we would like to assure him that they are, on the whole, 

 active agents for the preservation of species. Nor is this the interest 

 of the Oyster-catcher for the oyster. Ornithologists and oologists 

 alone know and appreciate the existence of the rare species, while 

 to the great mass of people bird-life connotes merely the songsters 

 of their shrubberies, fields and hedgerows. The ignorance of many 

 protectionists proves this. We commend to them a scheme for 

 the licensing and control of domestic cats, which would do more to 

 foster bird-life than all they have ever done or will do, while the 

 greatest efforts of the most greedy collector in a lifetime will not 

 exceed what a pair of Jays or Magpies will accomplish in one season. 

 But the author's views on these matters, relegated to the end of 

 the volume, do not detract one iota from the very great pleasure 

 it has afforded us. 



Harrison & Sons, Ltd., Printers in Ordinary to His Majesty, St. Martin's Lane, W.C. 2. 



