November io, 1923] 



NA TURE 



679 



« 



Field Natural History. 



(i) Hebridean ' Memories. By Seton Gordon. Pp. 

 xii+180 + 65 plates. (London, New York, Toronto 

 and Melbourne : Cassell and Co., Ltd., 1923.) 155. 

 net. 

 2) Shetland Pirates and other Wild Life Studies. 

 By Frances Pitt. Pp. 248+16 plates. (London: 

 G. Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1923.) 105. dd. net. 



IT used to be said of leisured Englishmen that their 

 first thought of a morning was — " What shall 

 we kill to-day ? " but in the present generation there 



survival is precarious. " It seems," says Mr. Gordon, 

 "to be only a question of time before this handsome 

 bird shares the fate of the kite and the white-tailed 

 eagle, for even to its most inaccessible [least accessible ?] 

 nesting grounds collectors make their way every year, 

 and to a collector a clutch of hen-harrier's eggs is a 

 prize of the first order." 



Happily Mr. Gordon has something to set against 

 this gloomy forecast. Until three years ago, the 

 whooper swan — Cygniis musiciis — had not been known 

 to nest in Great Britain since the end of the eighteenth 

 century ; but on a certain loch which must remain, 



""tariffi-- 



Fig. t. — Cock and hen great black- hacked gulls. The cock is the larger and is callinK- 

 From "Hebridean Memories." 



is a steadily increasing number of men and women who 

 prefer patiently to study wild animals in their haunts 

 and to learn as much as {wssible about their character 

 and habits. Instantaneous photography has added 

 greatly to the interest and permanent value of this 

 form of field sport, and b^th \\w boctk^ K.t..r'' mo owe 

 much to the camera. 



(i) Mr. Seton Gordon's field-studies have been 

 conducted chiefly in the Highlands and Western 

 Islands, where land and water retain much of their 

 primitive aspect and still harbour creatures that have 

 long been exiled from the low country. The hen- 

 harrier — Circus cyaneus — for example, though practi- 

 cally extinct as a resident in the mainland, still rears 

 its young in the Western Isles, although even there its 



NO. 2819, VOL. I I 2] 



like the clan Macgregor, "nameless by day," a pair 

 of whoopers reared their young in 1918 and 1919, 

 and in 1920 two pairs nested there. " One nest," 

 says the author, " is still intact as I write ; the other 

 has been robbed by collectors." As Christians we are 

 bidden to love our enemies, but as sinful mortals it is 

 something far removed from a blessing that we invoke 

 upon these nefarious thieves. Unless vigorous measures 

 are taken to protect the nests, we shall lose this splendid 

 bird once more, owing to the perverse curiosity of a few 

 armchair naturalists who will give ten times the price 

 for a liritish-laid egg of a whooper than he will pay for 

 one laid in Iceland. 



Mr. Gordon pitched his tent — an inconspicuous one, 

 no doubt — about fifteen feet from the wiiooper's nest, 



