770 



Recciti/i/ published Ornithological Works. [Ibis, 



pity that lie has refrained from criticism of what appear 

 occasionally to be highly coloured statements. The fact 

 that " cuttings "' from the ' Daily Mail ' and other daily 

 papers have been reprinted in book-form by a recognized 

 ornithologist, gives more weight to them than many of them 

 deserve. 



Section one of the first chapter deals almost entirely with 

 tlie Homing Pigeon Service during the war and will be read 

 with considerable interest. The feats of endurance accom- 

 plished by these wonderful birds deserves wide recognition 

 and admiration. Some of us cannot fail to deplore the loss 

 to Great Britain of so many of our best strains of Homers 

 by their disposal in France and Belgium at the end of the 

 operations. Mention is made of the various uses — some 

 ingenious, others very " far fetched^' — to which birds were 

 put to detect the presence of the euem\' or of poison gas in 

 the various theatres of war. 



In the second section Mr. Gladstone has brought together 

 an amount of evidence in support of our British Birds as 

 crop-protectors, and shows how the indiscriminate de- 

 struction of many species valuable to agriculture resulted 

 in a terrible scourge of caterpillars in various parts of the 

 country. 



In the third and fourth sections, the author gives us 

 a review of the various measures introduced by the Ministry 

 of Food to increase the food-supply, by utilising various 

 wild birds' eggs and by alteration to an earlier date of the 

 commencement of game-shooting seasons. There is a 

 chapter on the sufferings of birds during the war — on land 

 where the abnormally severe weather accounted for many 

 deaths, and at sea where the oil from tank-steamers and 

 submarines is said to have destroyed hundreds of sea birds, 

 the oil matting the feathers of llazorbills and Guillemots, 

 thus preventing them diving for food. A special section is 

 devoted to the effect of aircraft and air-raids on the bird 

 population. 



In sections 8 and 9 the author deals with the behaviour 

 gf birds in the war zones, and in this chapter Mr. Gladstone 



