Sept. 2, 1 8 75 J 



NAIURE 



365 



availed himself (would that he had discovered the lost 

 Fauna Calpensis of John White !) are the various papers 

 on Spanish Ornithology, by Lord Lilford and Mr. Howard 

 Saunders, published in the Ibis, and the late Mr. C. F. 

 Tyrwhitt Drake's notes on the birds of Tangier and 

 Eastern Morocco, which appeared in the same journal. 

 The list of Tangerine birds by Herr Carstensen {Nau- 

 viannia, 1852, i. pp. 76-79) gave but little help ; but our 

 author does not seem to have been aware of the late 

 Mr. G. W. H. Drummond Hay's observations {Froc. 

 Zool. Soc. 1840, pp. 133-135), which, though brief, appear 

 to be at least trustworthy. 



Colonel Irby catalogues 335 species as unquestionably 

 occurring within his limits, besides some twenty-five 

 more which may be reasonably looked for, though he 

 himself has not fallen in with them ; while many others 

 are doubtless to be found as stragglers, for " so local are 

 birds in Southern Spain, that perhaps some may be 

 resident and overlooked in consequence of the exact 

 locality they frequent having been unvisited." His re- 

 marks on all these are exceedingly discriminative and to 

 the point, furnishing a supply of information for which 

 ornithologists will be duly grateful, but they are mostly of 

 too special a kind to give extracts from them here. We 

 prefer quoting what he has to say on Migration, as 

 being a subject in which more of our readers will take 

 interest : — 



" Without doubt caused by the absence or abundance 

 of food, which in turn is caused by difference of tempera- 

 ture, the passage of birds in these parts begins with most 

 species almost to a day in spring, usually lasting for about 

 three weeks, though some, as the Hoopoe and the Swallows, 

 are more irregular in their first appearance ; and with 

 these the migration lasts throughout a longer period. 



" Few (indeed hardly any birds) do not migrate or shift 

 their ground to some extent. I can name very few which do 

 not appear to move, viz., Griffon-Vulture, Imperial Eagle, 

 Eagle- O w]. Blue Thrush, all the Woodpeckers, Treecreeper, 

 Black-headed Warbler, Dartford Warbler, Crested Lark, 

 Chough, Raven, Magpie, Red-legged and Barbary Par- 

 tridges, and the Andalucian Quail. Generally speaking, 

 it seems to me that in the vernal migration the males are 

 the first to arrive, as with the Wheatears, Nightingales, 

 Night-herons, Bee-eaters ; but this is a theory which 

 requires more confirmation. Some species, as the Neo- 

 phron and most of the Raptcres, pass in pairs. 



" Most of the land-birds pass by day, usually crossing 

 the Straits in the morning. The waders are, as a rule, 

 not seen on passage ; so it may be concluded they pass 

 by night, although I have occasionally obseived Peewits, 

 Golden Plover, Terns, and Gulls passing by day. 



"The autumnal or return migration is less conspicuous 

 than the vernal : and whether the passage is performed 

 by night, or whether the birds return by some other route, 

 or whether they pass straight on, not lingering by the way 

 as in spring, is an open question ; but during the autumn 

 months passed by me at Gibraltar, I failed to notice the 

 passage as in spring, though more than once during the 

 month of August, which 1 spent at Gibraltar, myself and 

 others distinctly heard Bee-eaters passing south at night, 

 and so conclude other birds may do the same. 



"... Both the vernal and autumnal migrations are 

 generally executed during an easterly wind, or Levanter ; 

 at one time I thought that this was essential to the pas- 

 sage, but it appears not to be the case, as, whether it be 

 an east or west wind, if it be the time for migration, 

 birds will pass, though they linger longer on the African 

 coast before starting if the wind be westerly ; and all the 

 very large flights of Raptores (Kites, Neophrons, Honey- 



Buzzards, &c.) which I have seen passed with a Levanter. 

 After observing the passage for five springs, I am unable 

 to come to any decided opinion, the truth being that, as 

 an east wind is the prevalent one, the idea has been 

 started that migration always takes place during that 

 wind. Nevertheless, it is an undoubted fact that during 

 the autumnal or southern migration of the Quail in Sep- 

 tember they collect in vast numbers on the European side 

 if there be a west wind, and seem not to be able to pass 

 until it changes to the east ; this is so much the case that, 

 if the wind keeps in that quarter during the migration, 

 none are hardly to be seen. 



" On some occasions the passage of the larger birds of 

 prey is a most wonderful sight ; but of all the remarkable 

 flights of any single species, that of the Common Crane 

 has been the most noteworthy that has come under my 

 own observation. 



"On the Andalucian side, the' number of birds seen 

 even by the ordinary traveller appears strikingly large, ' 

 this being, no doubt, in a great measure caused by the 

 quantity which are, for ten months at least out of the 

 year, more or less on migration ; that is to say, with the 

 exception of June and July, there is no month in which 

 the passage of birds is not noticeable, June being the only 

 one in which there may be said to be absolutely no migra- 

 tion, as, during the month of July, Cuckoos and some 

 Bee-eaters return to the south" (pp. 13-15). 



For want of space we must pass over the spirited de- 

 scriptions which the Colonel gives of the various localities 

 within his limits, and his experience of several shooting 

 excursions, the relation of which is wisely subordinated to 

 the main object of the book. We can fully enter into his 

 feelings when he was for two hours the unobserved ob- 

 server of a vast assemblage (at the lowest computation, 

 he says, between three and four thousand) of wild geese, 

 for we ourselves remember watching just such a host, and 

 under much the same circumstances, years ago on the 

 banks of a Lapland river ; but we cannot here introduce 

 his account. Our author has added to the value of his 

 book by giving a list of the Mammals of Southern Spain, 

 forty in number without counting the Barbary Ape, whose 

 presence on "the Rock" is the origin of so many theories 

 facetious as well as scientific ; and the volume concludes 

 with a convenient summary of the Birds, besides a very 

 good index. As reviewers we are of course entitled to 

 our " growl," and this shall be that the two neat maps 

 ■which illustrate the book are not drawn to the same scale, 

 and while that of Northern Morocco, for which we are 

 especially thankful, takes in a great deal more than 

 Colonel Irby's district, that of Southern Spain leaves out 

 at least as much. With this we bid him farewell. 



nOFMANN'S REFORT ON THE FROGRESS 

 OF CHEMICAL INDUSTRY 



Bcricht iiber die Entvjicklung der Chemischen Industrie 

 ivdhrend des letzten Jahrzchendsj im Verein mit 

 Freunden und Fachgenossen erstattet von Dr. A. W. 

 Hofmann. Autorisirter Abdruck aus dem Amtlichen 

 Bericht iiber die Wiener Weltausstellung im Jahre 1873. 

 {Report on the Developtnent 0/ Chemical Industry durim^ 

 the last Ten Years j in conjunction with friends and 

 fellow-workers. Composed by A. W. Hofmann. Au- 

 thorised reprint of the official report on the Vienna 

 Exhibition of 1873. Vol. iii. Part I.) (Braunschweig: 

 Fr. Vieweg und Sohn, 1875.) 



THE Imperial Commission of Germany for the Vienna 

 Exhibition of 1873 have put the report on the third 

 group, " Chemical Industry," into the hands of Dr. 



