Bibliographical Notice. 309 



interest are not, to our regret, brought out in this volume quite 

 so clearly as they should have been. It is rather hard upon the 

 readers of any book that each should have to make an abstract of 

 its contents for himself; and such a summary as we are sure the 

 Author would, and we think the Editor might, have given us 

 would have here been very acceptable. From the list at the end 

 we can only make out that there are about sixteen species which 

 seem to be becoming commoner than formerly in Shetland, and all 

 but three of them naturally are perching birds ; of the rest, the 

 Woodcock's name tells us of its arboreal tastes, and the Water- 

 Rail's predilections in the same direction are easily understood 

 when we recollect what a " tree " is apt to be like on a storm- 

 swept island in lat. 61° N. or thereabouts ; but we do not see how 

 the Lapwing can have been affected by planting, and think that 

 some other cause must be assigned for its gaining ground, though 

 this cause we are left to seek. Still the fact seems to be unques- 

 tionable that the avifauna of Shetland is growing, not merely in 

 the way told us by Gilbert White's old observation, to the effect 

 that the place which is best looked after yields most (for that may 

 be said of almost any district), but from the increased number of 

 individual birds as well as of species which breed on the islands ; 

 while, on the other hand, those which are reported as decreasing 

 are but few in number ; and, indeed, only one of them, the Razor- 

 bill (Alca tordci), seems to demand consideration ; for the statement 

 that such birds as the Golden Eagle and Snowy Owl formerly bred 

 in Shetland is unsupported by satisfactory evidence. Why the 

 Razorbill should be diminishing in numbers is not at all clear : the 

 suggestion (p. 314) that it " offers an easier mark to gunners," 

 being " a good deal bigger than the Guillemot," is inadmissible if 

 the Common Guillemot ( Uria troile) be meant, for the simple reason 

 that that bird is slightly larger than the Razorbill ; and if the Tysty 

 ( U. grylle) be the species intended, we have at once a very different 

 set of conditions. Unless we are mistaken, the habits of the two 

 species differ considerably — one seeking its food much further from 

 its breeding-quarters than the other, and the food of each not 

 being, we suspect, precisely identical. There is also the fact that 

 the Tysty lays at least twice as many eggs as its relative ; though 

 in this there may not be quite so much importance as at first would 

 appear, since Mr. Darwin tells us (on what authority he does not 

 say, but it is doubtless not bad) that the Fulmar Petrel, which lays 

 but one egg, is believed to be the most numerous bird in the world. 

 However, the relation which production bears to existence is, as all 

 must know, a most complicated problem, and any consideration of 

 it woidd lead us far from our present business, though we have 

 thought these remarks not inopportune as bearing upon a general 

 question interesting to all naturalists, that of the supersession of 

 certain species by others. 



To return to the ' Birds of Shetland.' It is plain matter of fact 

 from one end to the other, and full of information which is always 

 valuable, though, perhaps, not of the very best quality, or such as 



