1918.] Recently published Ornithological Works. 736 



streperus. He also mentions another specimen also pre- 

 served in the Indian Mnseum, and described by Mr. W. L. 

 Sclater (P. Z. S. 1891, p. 313) as a hybrid Mallard X Gad wall. 

 This latter, which he also figures, he believes to be Anas 

 boschas X Qiierquedula crecca rather than the previously- 

 named combination. 



Wiglesworth on the Little Owl. 



[The Little Owl {Athene noctua) in Somerset. By J. Wiglesworth, 

 M.D. Proc. Somerset Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc. Ixiii. 1917, pp. 152- 

 161 ; map.] 



Dr. Wiglesworth has put together with great care and 

 detail the records of the occurrence and sj)read of the 

 Little Owl in Somerset. Except for two stray records in 

 1834 and 1878, the invasion commenced in 1907, when an 

 example was shot at Tickenham between Bristol and Yatton 

 ill the north of the county. The following year it turned 

 up at Pensford, also in the north of the county, as observed 

 by Mr. Leyborne Popham, and here it has become thoroughly 

 established and now breeds regularly. It is quite evident 

 that the bird entered the county from the north, as its most 

 western extension — Minehead — was not reached till 1916. 



Dr. Wiglesworth also discusses the economics of the 

 Litile Owl, and appears to conclude that the benefits it 

 confers by the destruction of mice and insects outweigh 

 the harm in killing occasional young game- and other birds. 

 A neat map of the county with the })laces where the Little 

 Owl has occurred marked witli dates greatly facilitates an 

 appreciation of this workmanlike little paper. 



South African Journal of Natural History. 

 [The South African .lournal of Natural History. Vol. i. no. 1, 1!)18.] 

 We have recently received a copy of tliis new journal, 

 which is the official organ of the newly constituted South 

 African Biological Society lately formed by the amal- 

 gamation of the South African Ornithologists^ Union and 

 the Transvaal Biological Society. 



