246 Bibliographical Notices. 



to Sir Oswald Mosley and Mr. Edwin Brown for the volume before 

 us. Though we cannot accord it, notwithstanding the magnificence 

 with which it has been "got up," a position in the highest class of 

 local faunas or floras, yet the work contains a good deal that is of 

 importance, and is on the whole most creditable to the worthy Staf- 

 fordshire Baronet and his coadjutor. 



We should be sorry to say one word to discourage the appearance 

 of books of a character similar to this ; but at the same time we must 

 state that, in perusing it, we are reminded of certain short-comings 

 which make themselves prominent in this * Natural History of Tut- 

 bury.' One of the most remarkable features in the fauna of this 

 limited district is the herd of the so-called "wild cattle" which 

 still exists in the park at Chartley, where, it is stated, "the breed 

 has been carefully preserved." Now the history of this herd, 

 together with those that roam under the like conditions in Chilling- 

 ham and other parks, deserves much more attention than our authors 

 seem to have paid to it. We are told that the breed " is still kept 

 in its original purity" — an expression which is open to at least 

 two interpretations. Does it mean simply that common domestic 

 bulls and cows are prevented from mingling their blood with the 

 "wild cattle"? or does it mean that the careful preservation of the 

 breed " in its original purity " is effected by the timely elimination 

 of any calves which show a tendency to " sport " from an assumed 

 standard of perfection ? On neither of these points is any informa- 

 tion given us. If the former signification be the correct one, we 

 should have liked to know what remedy is provided against the cer- 

 tain evil consequences of breeding in-and-in among a limited number 

 of animals ; while, if the latter interpretation be attached to the ex- 

 pression, it would be of the greatest importance to naturalists to 

 learn what are the general tendencies of any variations that from 

 time to time may arise. That such variations were wont to occur in 

 the red-eared Chillingham herd we have good evidence for believing*; 

 and it is difficult not to suppose that the same may have been ob- 

 served in the black-eared animals so long cherished at Chartley. 



In the matter of birds, the most remarkable fact recorded in the 

 present volume is that of the occurrence of a pair of the American 

 Red- eyed Flycatcher (Vireosylvia olivacea, Bonaparte) — the "Whip- 

 Tom-Kelly" of our dis-united cousins — in May 1859, at Chellaston, 

 near Derby. Such notices are always worth mentioning, but we are 

 far from subscribing to the common opinion that accidental visitors 

 of this kind should be enrolled in our lists. One circumstance, 

 which, if Mr. Brown's surmises are to be trusted, is, to say the least 

 of it, extremely curious, is the capture, on the bank of the canal near 

 Burton, in 1857, of a living specimen of the European Freshwater 

 Tortoise. It will be remembered that, in a paper read before the 



* See the excellent paper by Mr. L. Hindmarsh in the first series of the 

 ' Annals,' vol. ii. pp. 2/4-284. For the convenience of those who interest 

 themselves in our British " wild cattle," we may take this opportunity of 

 referring to two other notices in the same series, vol. iii. pp. 241 & 356, 



