The Oologists' Record, Sepietnher 1, 1923. 61 



"it is more easily woven into the domed nest which, at the best 

 " of times, is a very flimsy structure." In several instances he has 

 found the cup of the nest made almost entirely of needles from 

 larch trees. 



" This bird does not take very kindly to the Cuckoo, for the 

 " placing of the Cuckoo's egg in a nest is sufficient to make the 

 " Wood Warbler forsake it, and from the number of Cuckoo's 

 " feathers around the nest in which I found an egg in 1920, I should 

 " say that the Cuckoo must have had a very bad reception." 



He does not think that a second brood is reared unless the first 

 meets with some mishap. 



" There appear to me," he continues, " to be many more males 

 " than females, judging by the few females seen or heard, whilst 

 " the males are to be heard singing in all kinds of suitable places 

 " throughout the summer months. During the present season there 

 " must have been twice as many males as females for in one small 

 " wood I heard no less than six males singing within a very short 

 "' distance of each other, yet the most thorough search failed to 

 " reveal more than three females, and in another small coppice 

 " there were four males and so far as I could ascertain there was 

 ^' only one female there. In arriving at this conclusion I have 

 " carefully taken into account the habit the male has of pitching 

 "' his singing site some considerable distance away from that chosen 

 "' for the nest." 



A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BRITISH ORNITHOLOGY. 



By H. KiRKE SwANN, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U., etc. (London : Wheldon cS: 

 Wesley, Ltd. 5s. net). 



This handy little reference book, which must have entailed an 

 enormous amount of work, will be welcomed by those who are 

 unable to keep pace with the constantly changing names of even 

 our commonest species. No doubt the process will some day reach 

 finality, but year after year old scientific names are dug up and 

 made to serve in lieu of the names with which we have become 

 familiar. Mr. Swann's work will show exactly when each species 

 acquired its earliest scientific name. 



First we have a list of the generic names employed and the dates 

 when they were first so used, with the reference to the work in which 



