NA TURE 



169 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, \\ 



RECENT ORNITHOLOGICAL WORKS. 



Notes on Sport and Ornithology. By His Imperial and 

 Royal Highness the late Crown Prince Rudolph of 

 Austria. Translated, with the Author's permission, by 

 C. G. Danford. Pp. i.-viii., 1-648. (London : Gurney 

 and Jackson, 1889.) 



Matabele Land and the Victoria Falls. A Naturalist's 

 Wanderings in the Interior of South Africa. From the 

 Letters and Journals of the late Frank Oates, F.R.G.S- 

 Edited by C. G. Gates, B.A. Second Edition. Pp. 

 i.-xlix., 1-433. (London : Kegan Paul, Trench, and 

 Co., 1889.) 



Index Generum Avium. A List of the Genera and Sub- 

 genera of Birds. By F. H. Waterhouse, A.L.S. Pp. 

 i.-v., 1-240. (London: R. H. Porter, 1889.) 



The Birds of Oxfordshire. By O. V. Aplin. With a 

 Map. Pp. i.-vii., 1-217. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 

 1889.) 



The Birds of Berwickshire; with Remarks on their 

 Local Distribution, Migration, and Habits, and also 

 on the Folk-lore, Proverbs, Popular Rhytnes, and 

 Sayings connected with them. By George Muirhead, 

 F.R.S.E. Vol. I., pp. i.-xxvi., 1-334- (Edinburgh : 

 David Douglas, 1889.) 



The Birds in my Garden. By W. T. Greene, M.A., 

 M.D. (London : Religious Tract Society, 1889.) 



NO naturalist can peruse the pages of the handsome 

 volume which contains the record of the sporting 

 journeys of the late Crown Prince Rudolph, without 

 sincere feelings of pity and regret. Here was a young 

 man, whose scientific instincts were of the truest, and for 

 whom, in every way, a splendid future might have been pre- 

 dicted, whose opportunities for the advancement of science 

 were unHmited ; and it is most sad that so promising a life 

 should have been cut short by the decrees of fate. One-third 

 of the volume before us is devoted to " Fifteen Days on the 

 Danube," and the narrative affords a striking experience 

 among the varied forms of bird-life which are to be met 

 with on that famous river in April. This is a really 

 valuable sketch of the ornithology of the district, and 

 will be useful to everyone who is interested in the dis- 

 tribution of European birds. The same may be said of 

 the chapters entitled " Sketches of Sport in Hungary" 

 (pp. 391-98), " Miscellaneous Notes on Ornithology " 

 (pp. 409-54), " Ornithological Sketches in Transylvania" 

 (pp. 559-72), and the various "Ornithological Notes" 

 from the neighbourhood of Vienna, &c. Throughout 

 the work the great affection which the author entertained 

 for the birds of prey is manifested, and the " Ornitho- 

 logical Sketches from Spain" (pp. 455-502), are entirely 

 devoted to Raptorial birds, as are also many other chapters 

 in the book. Prince Rudolph thoroughly believed in the 

 races of Golden Eagle {Aquila chrysaetus), which are 

 admitted by A. E. Brehm and other Continental authors. 

 The " Stein " Eagle is generally supposed to be a distinct 

 bird from the true Golden Eagle, and we remember how 

 the Crown Prince overhauled the series of specimens in 

 VO L. XLIi— No. 1052. 



the British Museum, and pointed out the differences 

 between the supposed races ; but when the discussion 

 was over, we could only see that the " Stein " Eagles con- 

 sisted mostly of immature birds, while the " Golden '' 

 Eagle was represented by the older birds in the collec- 

 tion, the alleged difference of habitat being due to the 

 fact that the more lowland country frequented by the 

 " Stein " Eagle was due to their being driven from the 

 mountain eyries by the older birds. The discussion of 

 many points by the Crown Prince on his visit to the 

 British Museum'was sufficient to show what a thoroughly 

 sound ornithologist he was. Mr. Danford has done his 

 work as a translator with evident care and a sympathetic 

 knowledge of his subject. Over much of the ground 

 traversed by the Prince the translator has also travelled, 

 and he has evidently fully appreciated the enthusiasm of 

 the author. In the " Ornithological Sketches from the 

 East," wherein are detailed the results of the Crown 

 Prince's journeys in Egypt and Nubia, and afterwards 

 in Palestine, we notice several identifications which strike 

 us as remarkable, and which we believe to be wrong. 

 Was not Falco feldeggii, the Lanner Falcon, the species 

 identified by the Prince as F. barbarus? Acrocephalus 

 turdoides (p. 513). Surely this is A. stentoreus? Cer- 

 thilauda duponti, "seen in considerable numbers, but 

 only among the bushes and scattered pastures of the 

 islands near the Barrage of the Nile." We should like 

 some confirmation of such an eastward extension of this 

 Algerian bird's range. Generally, however, the nomen- 

 clature is good, though slightly Brehmian in character, 

 and Mr, Danford has detected some obvious errors, 

 though the above statements appear to have escaped 

 him. 



The late Mr. Frank Oates was a young naturalist 

 who travelled in South Africa in 1873, 1874, and 1875, 

 and died from fever in February of the latter year after 

 his return from the Zambesi. He was a fine specimen of 

 the English traveller, devoted to the pursuit of natural his- 

 tory, and gifted with indomitable perseverance and pluck. 

 His intention on going to South Africa was to penetrate 

 into the interior beyond the Zambesi, and he seems to 

 have regarded his Matabele journey as but a preliminary 

 to more important explorations. The difficulties, how- 

 ever, of getting to the Victoria Falls were very great, and 

 the traveller only succeeded in reaching this desired goal 

 after four attempts and after excessive difficulties and 

 delays. He seems to have won the friendship of 

 Lobengula, and readily obtained the support of the latter 

 for his expedition, but the inferior chiefs and the natives 

 generally were very troublesome. The narrative shows 

 that at the date of Frank Oates's expedition it was by no 

 means easy to get to the Zambesi, especially when the 

 traveller was bent upon collecting en route. He 

 gave himself no rest in his pursuits ; and the attack 

 of fever which carried him off at the very time when 

 one of his brothers was on the way to join him in 

 the interior was doubtless accentuated and rendered 

 fatal by his untiring devotion to work, which seems 

 to have been one of his most pronounced charac- 

 tej-istics. After the traveller's death, a friend, Mr. 

 Gilchrist, went into the interior and brought down all 

 Oates's effects and his natural history collections, and 

 the story of the expedition was originally told by his 



I 



