December 1, 1900.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



277 



are fixed very firmly from four to six foot iibovo Iho iirouiul 

 airaiust trees. They sliould not be exposed to tlie south- 

 west, whioh is the worst quarter. Fixed thu?; near the 

 ground uud away from houses the boxes are praetieally 

 never used by Sparrows. All four Tits nest iu them 

 largely. Great Tits and Blue Tits jiredominating. Soiiie 

 years nearly all the Tits using the boxes are Jilue Tits, 

 other years they are Great Tits, and a good few Cole Tits 

 use them, but the Mar.sh Tits, although connnon 

 liere, very rarely do so. "Wrynecks always use some, 

 preferring those iu open situations. They will fref|Uently 

 destroy a number of Tits' nests, pulling out the nests ami 

 eggs. The Tits cover up their eggs in the boxes until they 

 begin to sit. Nuthatches also avail themselves of the 

 boxes, mudciing up the hole to .suit their si/e and also 

 mudding round the lid. Some years they use many boxes. 

 This year seventeen out of twenty looked at were oceupit>d 

 by Nuthatches. Manj' other birds, such as Robins and 

 Wagtails, are occasional occupants, es]iccially if the boxes 

 are old and Tits have greatly enlarged the holes in former 

 years. Similar boxes, but twenty inches square and with 

 double span roof with projecting eaves, are provided with 

 a hole, four by four-and-a-half inches. Thesi' larger boxes 

 are firmly fixed on horizontal boughs against the trunk, 

 not facing south-west unless very sheltered, and from 

 twenty to thirty feet high. They are used by Owls, 

 Jackdaws, Stock Doves. Kestrels. Squirrels, and occasionally 

 by Stoats. Nearly all the Stock Doves' nests are destroyed 

 early in the year by Jackdaws, etc., but they rear numerous 

 broods in late summer and autumn. Barn Owls have 

 young in some cases up to November. Jackdaws are 

 dreadful nuisances, as they fill the boxes up with sticks. 

 Where the boxes are placed in woods, however, fhe Jack- 

 daws are not much trouble. Barn Owls don't care fordeeji 

 woods. Kestrels are occasionally very numerous, and 

 several pairs will breed in comparatively close proximity ; I 

 have seen as many as six fighting for one box at the end 

 of March when they first arrive. In certain years scarcely 

 a Kestrel will nest in a box, and very few iu the trees. 

 Among the numbers of boxes in my neighbourhood, spread 

 over a comparatively large area, it is the greatest exception 

 to find one unoccui)ied, although natural nesting sites 

 abound everywhere. — E. G. B. Meade- Waldo, Stonewall 

 Park, Edeubridge, Kent. 



The Levantine Shearwater (Pujffinus t/eHouanusJ at Scarborouif/i- 

 {The NaturalUt, Novemter, 1900, p. "352.) Mr. E. Fortiim^' of 

 Harrogate, records that a bird of tlii.s species, now in liis possession, 

 Wiis shot at Scarborough on September IStli. The bird is an im- 

 mature female, and has been submitted to Mr. Iloward Saunilers for 

 identification. The Levantine Shearwater is tlie representative in the 

 Mediterranean of our Manx Shearwater, to whie)i it is very closely 

 allied. It has once before been obtained in Yorkshire, and on four 

 occasions in other parts of England. 



Late Brood of Wild Pheasants. At the meeting of the British 

 Ornithologists' Club held on October 17th, 190U, Mr. W. 13. Tegetmeicr 

 exhibited a nestling Pheasant only a few days old. The bird had been 

 sent to liim from Mr. .•Vlfred Dunnage, of Dedluim, Colchester. It 

 had formed one of a brood of nine or ten birds hatched out in a hedge- 

 row, far from any covert. 



An Observational Diary of the Ilabits of the Oreat Plorer 

 COedicnemus crepitans) during September and October. Hy Edmund 

 SeJous. (Zoologist, 1900, April, pp. 173-185, June, pp 270 277, 

 October, pp. 458-176.) The writer of this diary is at great pains to tell 

 us precisely and minutely what liappened at every moment in wliich he 

 watched sjme Stone Curlews througli September and Octoljer in 

 Ea^l Anglia We cannot help thinking it a mistake to print a note 

 book. Mr. .Selous could have given us a more valuable and practicable 

 contribution by extending his observations of the Great Plover to 

 other months and other localities, and then writing a summary, such 

 as he gives at the end of these articles, enlarged and with a few 

 quotations from his notebook. Among the conclusions arrived at 

 concerning the habits of the Great Plover in September and October 

 by Mr. Selous, we may mention that they have regular places of 



assembly during the diiy. .\s evening falls they indulge in oxcilod 

 motions which may be railed dances, ace.om|janied by their loud 

 wailing notes. During the night they feed over the general surface 

 of the country, returning to their plaees of ii«scn\bly at very early 

 dawn. 



All contributions to the rolunin, either in the irat/ of jtotcs 

 or photoiirnjih.t, shouhl be fornaninl to Harry F. Witiikrhv, 

 at I, F.iiot Pl,icr, Blachheath, Kent. 



jllottccs of Boofes. 



Tut: Biiiiis (U' liir.i.wii. I'.y Richard J. l^sshor ami Robert 

 Warren, ((iiu'iicy and Jackson.) Illustrated. ;i(ls. This is a 

 book for which British oriiitliolot;isls have waited long, and 

 their patience is now amply rewarded by the production of a 

 work of a thoroughness, accuracy, and completeness such as 

 could oiil.v have been arrived at by many years of Labour. Tip 

 to now Thomi)soii has been the only author to treat of Irish 

 ornithology in detail. His publication appeared fifty years ago, 

 at a time when the Natural History of Ireland was .sadly 

 neglected. Of late years Irishmen have paid increasing 

 attention to the fauna and tlora of their country until the band 

 of workers in this direction, although still small, is now one of 

 which any coimtry might be proud. Amongst these the authors 

 of the present volume must by no means be counted least. They 

 have attacked their suliject in a thoroughly masterly way, and 

 a book of exceptional excellence is the result. As the authors' 

 object was to compile a local avifauna, they have wisely decided 

 not to attempt to give a complete account of any species, nor to 

 describe the birds themselves. The distribution of each species 

 within the island is treated as the point of primary importance, 

 and no ])airis have been sp.ared in collecting, and, above all, in 

 personally verifying, information for this purpose. The niiiifra- 

 tions of each species, as far as Ireland is concerned, is adnuralily 

 dealt with, and in this the authors have received the valuable 

 aid of Mr. R. M. Barrington, who has lately ])ublished a most 

 exhaustive work on the subject. A list of Tri.sh names, a well- 

 arranged table, showing the distribution of the birds which 

 have bred in Ireland in the nineteenth century, and some 

 excellent maps, are further good features in the work. Owing 

 to its geographical position, upon which depend its climate and 

 the character of its land surface, Indand offers a marked and 

 interesting difference from England in its avifauna. Many birds 

 common in England are either cot found, or arc very rare, there, 

 a fact which is especially noticeable in many of our summer 

 migrants which do not travel so far west, and in such birds as 

 woodpeckers and the tawny owl, which require large old timber 

 in which to breed. Thus Ireland is not so rich in species as 

 (ireat Britain, but it is nevertheless rich in bird-life. Its 

 extensive moors and lakes, its high cliffs and numerous estuaries 

 are populated with a ho.«t of birds many of which are unfamiliar 

 to most Englishmen, and its woods, although small and coni- 

 ]>aratively young, are the regular nesting haunts of such birds 

 as siskins and cross-bills, which very rarely breed in England. 

 Another fact of great interest is tlie increa.se of late years in 

 Ireland, as breeding species, of such birds as the starling, wood- 

 cook, magpie, and mistle thrush. All these points receive 

 special attention in the jn-esent volume, and are authoritatively 

 dealt with. In sincerely congratulating the authors upon the 

 universal e.xcellerice of their production, it is oidy fair to state 

 that the greater part of the work is that of Mr. Us.sher, and 

 therefore to him is due the larger amount of praise, but in 

 saying this we do not for a moment suggest that the portions 

 of the volume for which ^fr. Warren, who is an accomplished 

 ornithologist, is res])onsible fall in any way short of the high 

 standard attained in the rest of the work. 



A Tl'.KATisic o.\ Zoology. Edited by E. Kay Lankester. 

 Part II. — The Porifera and Coelentera. By K. A. j\Iinchiii, 

 C. H. Fowler, and G. C. Bourne, with an Introduction by the 

 Editor. (A. and C. Black.) 15s. net. The second instalment 

 of this great work, which in serial order preced(;s the part on 

 the Echinodernia, issued last March, and already noticed in this 

 journal, fully maintains the high standard of the latter. Like 

 its predece.ssor, it is bristling with technicalities, and is not to 

 be regarded as a book on popular natural history which can be 

 taken up and read during any spare half-hour. It is essentially 



