A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



" To the solid ground 

 Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye." — Wordsworth. 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1914. 



OUR RARER BIRDS. 



Field-studies of Some Rarer British Birds. By 

 John Walpole-Bond. Pp. x + 305. (London: 

 Witherby and Co., 1914.) Price 75. 6d. net. 



THE scope of the volume before us is well 

 indicated by its title. Mr. Bond, indeed, 

 ceeps us from first to last in the open air observ- 

 ng the habits of the birds and discovering- the 

 >ecrets of their nests. Now the author is at home 

 n the south-east of Eng-land, now he vtsits well- 

 oved haunts in Wales ; or, again, he wanders 

 'urther afield — to the wild coast of Ireland, to 

 :he fastnesses of the Central Highlands, or to the 

 noors of Orkney. It is evident that Mr. Bond 

 vrites about no mere holiday excursions, but that 

 le has been able to give much time to field 

 )rnithology, and has travelled far and wide 

 liroughout our islands in its pursuit. 



The birds which have been chosen for treatment 

 io not all in like degree deserve the title "rare." 

 ^ few, indeed, are merely rather restricted 

 n their distribution — either from natural cause. 

 >r owing to human persecution. But although 

 :he needless destruction of many of our most 

 nteresting birds comes in for just censure, there 

 is a brighter side to the picture : the golden eagle 

 s well protected in Scotland, our buzzard popula- 

 tion is estimated at more than four hundred and 

 ifty pairs ; the raven and the f>eregrine hold their 

 )wn in the remoter districts ; the hobby is more 

 aumerous than is generally supposed ; the de- 

 crease of the chough is not attributed to human 

 igencies; while the gadwall is an addition to our 

 lative avifauna. 



In these days of nature photography, very ex- 

 cellent in its way, it is something of a relief to 

 NO. 2340, VOL. 94] 



find a bird-book that is able to stand on the merits 

 of text alone. But at the same time we become 

 more exacting as to literary form, and therein 

 discover our author's failing. The extraordinary 

 number of parenthetical and other interpolated 

 clauses gives a disjointed and inconsequent effect 

 to a style already loose. One has the impression, 

 indeed, that a horde of new details has been added 

 at the last moment without any attempt at re- 

 casting the sentences. This is a grave fault, for 

 it does much to mar the reader's pleasure while 

 constantly " side-tracking " his interest. Never- 

 theless, Mr. Bond has much to tell that few know, 

 but that many will gladly learn. 



SCIENCE AND THE FARMER. 

 (i) A Pilgrimage of British Farming, 1 910- 191 2. 

 By A. D. Hall. Reprinted by permission from 

 the Times. Pp. xiii + 452. (London: John 

 Murray, 191 3.) Price 5s. net. 



(2) Soils and Crops; With Soils Treated in Re- 

 ference to Crop Production. By Prof. T. F. 

 Hunt and Prof. C. W. Burkett. Pp. xiii-f54i. 

 (New York : Orange Judd Co. ; London : Kegan 

 Paul, Treqph, Triibner and Co., 1913-) Price 

 y^s. 6d. net. 



(3) Manures and Fertilisers. By Prof. H. J. 

 Wheeler. Pp. xxi + 389. (New York : The 

 Macmillan Company ; London : Macmillan and 

 Co., Ltd., 1913.) Price 75. net. 



(0 " 'nr^O see himself as others see him" ia 

 J. nowadays very much the fate of the 

 man who lives in the country and gets his living 

 by agriculture. He has only to open his morning 

 paper to find some speech or article by some pro- 

 minent person setting forth the good or bad con- 

 ditions under which he and his labourers live, and 

 propounding some remedy for the evils described. 



B 



