Recent Ornithological Publications. 129 



affords ample proof of careful study both at home and abroad. 

 Germany had hitherto scarcely possessed a work giving a really 

 good account of its coast-frequenting species j to supply this 

 want was the author^s object, and in its attainment he has been 

 very successful. Though he writes in a popular style. Baron 

 Droste is far more than a mere popular writer; and the result is 

 a volume which is acceptable not only to the sportsman or the 

 ordinary reader, but may be taken up with advantage by the 

 scientific ornithologist. The Baron sets an example which we 

 should like to see followed on every occasion by our own local 

 faunists ; for he devotes some fifty or more pages to introduc- 

 tory matter, treating of the topography of the island and the 

 general character of its ornithology at various seasons of the 

 year^, thus fully justifying the expression of the title — "Bird- 

 world.^' To this succeeds the usual catalogue of the species ob- 

 served, with notes upon them ; and here it becomes plain that 

 the author is diligent to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest 

 what others have written on the subject. As some of our 

 readers may not be able to put their fingers upon Borkum in 

 the map, we may as well mention that it is one of the line 

 of little islands that stretches along the North-sea coast of 

 Holland and Germany, from the Zuyder Zee to the mouth of 

 the Weser, and is the most westerly of the chain which is 

 German, its near neighbour Rottum being Dutch, though, 

 geographically speaking, it might be more correct to say that 

 both were Frisian. 



The old German Ornithologists' Society still survives, not- 

 withstanding the secession a few years since of some of its most 

 active members and the founding of a rival, having its head- 

 quarters at Berlin. The old Society had no fixed place of as- 

 sembly, but led a vagrant life, just as does our British Associa- 

 tion ; and its seventeenth and latest meeting began at Cassel on 

 the 18th and ended at Miinden on the 21st of May last, under 

 the direction of Baron Droste, of whom we have just spoken, as 



* Some of this matter has before appeared in the ' Journal fiir Orni- 

 thologie.' 



N. S. VOL. VI. K 



