Bibliographical Notices. 319 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



Catalor/ue of the Birds of Suffolk ; ivith an Introduction and Remarks 

 on their Distribution. By Churchill Babington, D.D., V.P.R.S.I., 

 F.L.S., &c. London : John Yan Voorst, 1884-86. 



Amongst the workers in the vast field of Natural Histoi}'' there are 

 none who confer a greater public benefit than those who undertake 

 the task of working up local lists, and no one who has not had to 

 refer to these lists for working purposes can realize their extreme 

 utility ; and Mr. Babington, to whom we are indebted for the present 

 Catalogue of the Birds of Suff'olk, has executed the task he has 

 undertaken conscientiously and well. This Catalogue is a reprint 

 of a series of articles issued in the ' Proceedings of the Roj^al 

 Suff'olk Institute of Archaeology and Natural History ' in 1884-86, 

 together with sundry additions and corrections, and in its present 

 form constitutes an important addition to the many local lists that 

 have been published on the ornithology of Great Britain. 



Mr. Babington has collected from all possible sources what avail- 

 able information is to be had respecting the avifauna of the county, 

 and has most carefully sifted the evidence respecting the occurrences 

 of the rarer stragglers. It is to be regretted that the author has 

 elected, in dividing the county into districts, to make use of the 

 hundreds, instead of making natural divisions such as are referred 

 to in the earlier pages of his chapter on the distribution of the 

 birds, inasmuch as these latter divisions would be readily compre- 

 hensible to any ornithologist, whereas but few will be any the 

 wiser respecting the general distribution of the birds even after a 

 careful study of the map of the hundreds which is issued as a 

 frontispiece. 



It is much to be deplored that several species which formerly 

 used to breed regularly, if not commonly, have now become rare and 

 have entirely ceased to nest in their old haunts. Thus the Marsh- 

 Harrier is now said to be " apparently the rarest of the Harriers in 

 Suffolk," and the Hobby, though stated to " breed in several districts," 

 does not appear to have been found nesting in the county for some 

 years past. The Spoonbill and the Black Tern have been driven 

 away owing to their breeding-places having been invaded ; and even 

 the Black-headed Gull, which formerly bred on a more at Brandon, 

 has forsaken its old haunts in consequence of the plundering of its 

 nests. It is satisfactory, however, to find that, in consequence of 

 the Act of Parliament for the Preservation of Wild Birds, " the 

 song-birds and several other species, for example the Ducks, Gulls, 

 and Plovers, have recently increased in numbers in Suffolk," and 

 that the Bearded Titmouse " is still (1886) found in some numbers 

 at Oulton Broad." 



Seven photographs of rare birds are issued with the work, two of 

 which (plates v. and vi.) are of the immature bird supposed to be 

 referable to Cygnus buccinator, a species which has been included 



