118 Recent Literature. [jan. 



ornithology in Australia, and discusses the whole nomenclature problem as 

 well as the zoogeography of the region. 



The volume as a whole contains an enormous amount of information 

 and ornithologists both in Australia and elsewhere should feel grateful to 

 Mr. Mathews for his painstaking researches and for presenting the results 

 in such an available form. — W. S. 



Witherby on the Moult of the Rook.i — The well known Rook of 

 England and Europe and an eastern subspecies ranging to Japan differ 

 from the Crows in having the face and upper throat bare of feathers in the 

 adult, though they are normally feathered in juvenal birds. The method 

 by which the feathers are lost has been a frequent subject for speculation 

 and most writers seem to have preferred to' speculate rather than to experi- 

 ment, as frequently happens in similar cases. Mr. H. F. Witherby, how- 

 ever, by securing a good series of birds of all ages in the flesh, and 

 studying them inteUigentV. has cleared up the whole matter. He finds 

 that at the post- juvenal moult a new set of feathers is acquired and the 

 bird has a fully feathered face which it retains until January or later. 

 The feathers are then moulted simultaneously with the wearing of the 

 body plumage as the breeding season approaches. As the feathers drop 

 out the papillae become active, but instead of producing feathers there 

 arise only short * pins ' a millimeter or so in length, rarely terminating 

 with short degenerate feather structures. The down feathers which are 

 scattered here and there over the throat and face do not moult, and with 

 the pins they suffer gradual abrasion until the next autumnal moult. At 

 this and each succeeding post-nuptial moult the throat develops a covering 

 of gray down which with a few degenerate feathers that appear with it 

 soon wears away until the area is bare. The papillse of the face do not 

 seem ever to become active again. after the post-juvenal moult. 



Mr. Witherby has done an excellent piece of work in demonstrating ex- 

 actly how and when this peculiar loss of feathers occurs. Why the feather 

 papillae should regularly become inactive he leaves to some one more con- 

 versant with feather development, and generously offers them his material. 



Whi'e conducting this investigation on the moult of the head Mr. 

 Witherby natural y took note of the sequence of plumage elsewhere, 

 which he describes in detail and which is essentially the same as in our 

 American Crow. — W. S. 



Trevor-Battye's 'Camping in Crete.' ^ — This handsome volume 

 'forms a book of old world travel more than usually interesting to the 



1 The Sequence of Plumages of the Rook. With Special Reference to the Moult 

 of the "Face." By H. F. Witherby. British Birds, Vol. VII, No. 5, October I. 

 1913, pp. 126-139. 



2 Camping in Crete | with Notes upon the Animal | and Plant Life of the Island | 

 By I Aubyn Trevor-Battye | M. A., F. L. S., F. Z. S., F. R. G. S., etc. | Including 

 a Description of ceitain Caves and their Ancient Deposits ! By Dorothea M. A. 

 Bate, M. B. O. U. | with thirty-two Plates and a Map. | Witherby & Co. | 326 

 High Holborn, London | 1913. 8vo. pp. i-xxi +1-308. Price 10s 6d. 



