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fixity of habit to the colonies of ants, and a providence on the part

of the birds for which much evidence would be required. It is possible,

however, that the explanation is simpler, Although ants remain in

activity underground through winter, their numbers and their

enterprise seem greater in late summer and autumn, at least in

English woods, than at any other season of the year, and it may be

that the majority of nests escape because the young are fledged and

active before the visits of ants are numerous.


There are some delightful descriptions of the habits of birds, as,

for instance, of Sparrow-hawks teaching their young, of the flight

of the Humming-bird, of Herons bathing. Some tragedies of wild

life are recorded. A Guira Cuckoo was found with its head hanging

and wings drooping, struggling with too large a mouse that had

stuck in its gullet. A Painted Snipe had unwarily put its foot between

the open valves of a large fresh-water Clam, and had been caught in

this living trap. It was skin and bone when Mr. Hudson was able

to release it, but he hopes that it had a chance of surviving.


These are a few examples of the good reading that Mr. Hudson

provides. As I have already said, the greater part of the volume is

not about birds, but this will not detract from its value to

aviculturists. Those who are not merely systematists cannot confine

their interests to one group of animals, and they will watch birds to

more purpose if they also study the mammals and reptiles and

insects, the trees and flowers amongst which birds live. They

could have no pleasanter or more stimulating guide than Mr. Hudson.


P. Chalmers Mitchell.



A Geographical Bibliography of British Ornithology. By


W. H. Mullens, H. K. Swann, and F. C. R. Jourdain. Part I.


Witherby & Co. 65. net.


The Biographical Bibliography, to which this is a companion,

has proved a most useful book of reference, but it lacked what the

geographical work is designed to supply. Workers on county

avifaunas or other distributional lists will find themselves saved an

immense amount of toil. Only those who have attempted a country



