246 Recently published Ornithological Works. 



extremely readable, and may undeniably be consulted with 

 profit by ornithologists — for instance, the remarks (pp. 7-16) 

 on migration. But herein we venture to demur to one, at 

 least, of the author's suppositions. He seems to think that 

 all the individual birds of every species slide, so to speak, in 

 regular order from south to north, and from north to south, 

 according to the particular station that each individual keeps. 

 This may be the case with some species ; but observations, 

 though confessedly imperfect, are not wanting to show that 

 in other species the individuals which winter the furthest to 

 the south are those which have their breeding-place furthest 

 to the north, aad thus the subject is far more complex than 

 would appear from the simple diagram which the author 

 gives us (p. 9) in illustration of his views. However, every 

 contribution to this puzzling question helps to elucidate it, 

 and, if on that account only, we are thankful to Mr. Abel 

 Chapman for his book. 



53. Dixon on our Rarer Birdt. 



[Our Rarer Birds: being Studies in Ornithology and Oology. By 

 Charles Dixon. Pp.373. 8vo. London: 1888.] 



There seems to be no limit to the demand for popular 

 books on natural history, and Mr. Dixon's volume on our 

 rarer birds, of which he has kindly sent us a copy, will, no 

 doubt, meet with a good reception. The title, however, is a 

 little misleading, as it cannot be said in strictness that such 

 species as the Nuthatch, Green Woodpecker, Stock Dove, 

 and Heron, and many others descanted upon in this work 

 have any claim to be considered as rarer birds. The wood- 

 cut illustrations in this volume are mostly well drawn and very 

 pretty. As regards the reproduction of the lithographic 

 frontispiece, representing the St. Kilda Wren, which is the 

 same as that given in ' The Ibis,^ 1885, pi. iii., there has, we 

 observe, been a somewhat acrimonious controversy in the 

 ' Athenaeum.' This would have been avoided if Mr. Dixon 

 had stated that he obtained his authority, not from the 

 Secretary of the Zoological Society of London, who had 

 nothing whatever to do with the matter, but from one of the 

 former joint Editors of this Journal. 



