260 Reviews. [J^^^^ 



enough to visit the Nile Valley. There are 51 coloured plates, 

 and brief popular descriptions of no fewer than 356 species of 

 birds. The plates are excellently reproduced, though the 

 colours in some instances are displeasing. They form a 

 charming portrait gallery of Egypt's avifauna. Perhaps the 

 most artistic are those depicting the Black-and-White King- 

 fisher {Ceryle rudis), Kites in flight, and Buff-back Herons 

 {Ardeola rnssofa). All the illustrations are from original water- 

 colour drawings. Mr. VVhymper, during his visits to Egypt, 

 was given special facilities for obtaining information and 

 carrying out his pleasant task of portraying the bird life of the 

 country. The results he has obtained are deserving of all praise. 

 But if Mr. Whymper is an accomplished artist he has not 

 the gift of writing to an equal degree. There is no magic in his 

 descriptions of the beautiful creatures which his brush has so 

 finely portrayed. Perhaps he did not seek after the style which 

 makes the essays of Burroughs and Hudson so delightful to read. 

 As he says, he wrote the book to aid visitors to the land of the 

 Pharaohs to identify the birds seen, and in this purpose he has 

 succeeded admirably. Here is a sample of the text, picked at 

 random : — 



" We will spare the reader a detailed menu of this omnivorous bird 

 (the Kite), but all who visit Egypt ought to bless it, as, until some 

 enlightened system of sanitation is adopted, this bird, almost unaided, 

 makes the land possible to live in, or to be visited with any safety or 

 pleasure. If it were exterminated, as the Kites have been in 

 Great Britain, it is almost impossible to exaggerate what would be the 

 dire results to the health of the newcomers to this old Eastern country. 

 Mercifully there seems no sort of chance of its numbers decreasing. 

 Indeed, in 1908 I saw, behind the New Winter Palace Hotel at Luxor, 

 a fiock which certainly ran into hundreds ; two dead donkeys, thrown 

 out behind the walls of the hotel grounds, were the cause of this vast 

 congregation." 



The author states that the birds in Egypt are very tame and 

 admit of close inspection. He does not know why this should 

 be so, as the land "teems with foxes, jackals, Kites, Vultures, 

 Eagles, Falcons, and Hawks without end, all with an eye to busi- 

 ness." And there are hosts of " demon boys " to harry the wild 

 things. 



Correspondence. 



PROTECTION AND PRIORITY. 



To the Editors of " The Emu.'' 



Dear Sir.S, — Would you kindly inform me if any steps have 

 been taken, or are contemplated, to check the exportation of 

 protected birds from New South Wales and Queensland. I 

 have means of knowing that large numbers of a variety of 

 species are shipped from different ports of the above States 



