f^CVIEWS 



A Fauna of the Tweed Area. By A. H. Evans. Pp. 262 + 

 XXVIII. 21 Plates and a Map. (Edinburgh : David 

 Douglas.) 30s. 



This is the twelfth volume of Mr. Harvie-Brown's Vertebrate 

 Fauna of Scotland. The Tweed Area covers the counties of 

 Berwick, Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles, and penetrates to 

 a small extent into East Lothian and Mid Lothian, while it 

 takes in the north-eastern corner of Northumberland, includ- 

 ing Holy Island and the Fame Isles. 



Following a bibliography Mr. Evans gives a good account 

 of the physical features of this region, and then proceeds to 

 a detailed discussion of its vertebrate fauna with the exception 

 of the Fishes, which are to be treated with those of the 

 Forth Area in the volume on that region promised by Mr. W. 

 Evans. We are here concerned with the Birds, which 

 occupy a large portion (pp. 52-246) of the book ; but we must 

 not fail to note, in passing, the extraordinary and conspicuous 

 omission of the Rabbit from the Mammals. 



Mr. Evans's account of the birds is, with some important 

 exceptions to be referred to later, on the whole a satisfactory 

 piece of work, and though we could have wished for evidence 

 of more personal observation than is given, the gathering 

 together of the published records has been done with great 

 care and discrimination. It is somewhat curious that Mr. 

 O. Bolam, who is so very frequently quoted in this volume, 

 and who has no doubt done more observation than anyone 

 else in the area, should himself be writing a book, which we 

 understand is now in the press. 



The Tweed area is a somewhat important one for the reason 

 that within or near its limits the northernmost point of the 

 ranges of several species in Great Britain was reached until 

 comparatively recent times, while in the case of at least one 

 bird — the Eider — the Fame Isles provide its most southerly 

 breeding place at the present time. To the necessity of 

 carefull}^ reviewing the history of the status of such birds 

 the author has been alive, and his careful historical accounts 

 of the Hawfinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Stock-Dove, 

 and other birds from this point of view are excellent. Mr. 

 Evans is, however, stretching a point we think in consider- 

 ing (p. XV.) the Red-backed Shrike, Nuthatch, Nightingale 

 and Wryneck as "here approximately at the northernmost 



