Bibliographical Notices. 343 



every sense justified, and both Editor and Authors have placed 

 zoological students under a great obligation by bringing within easy 

 reach, and with marvellous completeness, all the essential facts 

 concerning a group which has always ranked as one of the most 

 difficult of comprehension. This book, we may safely say, as yet 

 knows no rival. 



It is beautifully and profusely illustrated and remarkably free 

 from misprints. The only one which we have detected, so far, is on 

 page 9, where constracted appears for constructed. 



W. P. PrCRAFT. 



A Monograph of Christmas Island. Physical Features and Geology 

 by Charles W. Andrews, B.A. ; with Descriptions of the Fauna 

 and Flora by numerous Contributors. Printed for the Trustees 

 of the British Museum. London, 1900. 



This is a book of remarkable interest, and one of more than ordinary 

 scientific value. It is an embodiment of the results of a ten-months' 

 stay on Christmas Island by Mr. Andrews during 1897-98 ; and the 

 Trustees of the British Museum, in publishing these results, have 

 conferred a great and lasting benefit upon students of natural science. 



Our thanks, however, are not alone due to the Trustees. " It 

 seemed highly desirable," writes Sir John Murray in an Introductory 

 Preface, " that this interesting island — which was evidently an up- 

 raised coral atoll — should be carefully examined and described by a 

 competent naturalist and geologist before being opened up by Euro- 

 peans for agricultural and commercial purposes. Accordingly it was 

 arranged with the Trustees of the British Museum that Mr. C. W. 

 Andrews, B.Sc, F.G.S., of the Geological Department, should be 

 granted leave to carry out this exploration. I undertook to pay all 

 the expenses and to present a complete set of all specimens procured 

 to the National Collection." 



The physical features and geology have been written by Mr. An- 

 drews. The zoology has been worked out by various specialists, 

 most of whom are members of the Museum staff. Their work has 

 been well done. Comparisons are odious, so we refrain from 

 comment in this direction. Field-notes by Mr. Andrews are often 

 appended to the descriptions of species, and some of these notes are 

 of extreme interest. Perhaps one of the most vivid of these descrip- 

 tions is that of the frigate-bird. " About the beginning of January," 

 he writes, " the adult males begin to acquire the remarkable pouch 

 of scarlet skin beneath their throat. This they can inflate till it is 

 nearly as large as the rest of the body, and a dozen or more of these 

 birds sitting in a tree with outstretched drooping wings and this 

 great scarlet bladder under their heads are a most remarkable sight. 

 When a hen bird approaches the tree the males utter a peculiar cry, 

 a sort of ' wow-wow-wow-wow,' and clatter their beaks like casta- 

 nets, at the same time shaking the wings. When they take to flight 



