132 Recent Literature. [jan. 



scenic features of the county, nests and eggs, and birds from life or from 

 historic specimens. The volume is beautifully printed on heavy unglazed 

 paper, and forms an attractive and important addition to the series of 

 works relating to local faunas in the British Isles. — J. A. A. 



Report on the Immigration of Summer Residents in England 

 and Wales in the Spring of 1909. l — This is the Report (the fifth of the 

 series) of the Committee of the British Ornithologists' Club on the spring 

 immigration of the summer resident birds into England and Wales in the 

 spring of 1909, and on migratory species observed in the Autumn of 1908. 

 In respect to the species reported upon and in form of treatment the pres- 

 ent report conforms closely to its predecessors, previously noticed in this 

 journal, although containing about one third more pages, due mainly to 

 a fuller treatment of the autumn records. The stream of spring mi- 

 grants, while "fairly continuous," was at its height from the 9th of April 

 to the 13th of May, with the usually large 'waves.' "The main immigra- 

 tion took place on the 9th, 17th and 25th of April, and on the 2nd-5th, 

 10th and 13th of May, the largest on the 17th of April, when the arrival 

 of at least twenty species was observeed." — J. A. A. 



Beetham's ' The Home-Life of the Spoonbill, the Stork and Some 

 Herons.' — This is the second volume 2 of the "Home-Life" series, pub- 

 lished by Witherby & Co., the first being Macpherson's 'The Home-Life 

 of a Golden Eagle,' already noticed in these pages (Auk, XXVII, Jan. 

 1910, pp. 101, 102). The present volume treats of the Spoonbill, the 

 White Stork, the Common Heron, and the Purple Heron. These four 

 species were carefully studied and photographed from screens or blinds 

 erected near nests, and the text and accompanying beautiful illustrations 

 are an important contribution to the life histories of these species. The 

 author takes us to the haunts of these birds, without however telling us 

 just where he found them, but the setting and the allusions indicate, at 

 least for three of the species, the marshes of Holland. 



Of the Spoonbill the author says: "The manner of feeding was quite 

 distinct from that of the cormorant-like birds, where the young thrust 

 their heads far down their parents' distended gullets, for here the food was 

 regurgitated into the top of the throat and the trough at the base of the 

 lower mandible, whence the young could pick it out without their heads 



1 Report on the Immigration of Summer Residents in the Spring of 1909: also 

 Notes on the Migratory Movements and Records received from Lighthouses and 

 Light Vessels during the Autumn of 1908. By the Committee appointed by the 

 British Ornithologists' Club. = Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club, Vol. 

 XXVI, October, 1910. Edited by W. R. Ogilvie-Grant. 8vo, pp. 347. 



2 The Home-Life | of the | Spoonbill | the Stork and some Herons [ Photo- 

 graphed and described | by | Bentley Beetham, P. Z. S. | With thirty-two mounted 

 Plates | London Witherby & Co., 326 High Holborn, W. C. | MCMX — Large 

 8vo., pp. viii + 47, with 32 plates. 5s. 



