cragsmen), Capt. E. Savile Eeid, late E.E., 

 Mr. A. C. Stark, and" others, wnose notes are 

 now added to his own. The result is that, 

 instead of the little octavo of 1875, we have 

 a handsome quarto, with beautiful coloured 

 jpjates in_Mr_A. Thorburn's best style from 

 birds living in Lord LilforaTs'^avTaries'near 

 Oundle, as well as numerous illustrations 

 of scenery from sketches and photographs. 

 Much new and valuable information has 

 been added, and the list of birds is raised 

 from 335 to 369, while a feature of the pre- 

 sent volume is the short diagnosis of each 

 species on the lines adopted by the author 

 in his useful Key to British Birds,' which 

 was noticed in these columns some time 

 ago. Two maps and, it is almost unneces- 

 sary to say, an adequate index are to be 

 found in both editions. 



Owing to its position in close proximity 

 \ to Africa, Spain or let us say the Iberian 

 ~ Peninsula, to avoid offence to our Portuguese 

 friends is probably the most interesting 

 country in Europe as regards its fauna. In 

 the south, which immediately concerns us, 

 there is an ichneumon (Herpestes) almost, if 

 not absolutely, identical with the Numidian 

 species ; the lynx is peculiar, and has just 

 a flavour of the African serval ; the red deer 

 of the north comes down to the pine- clad 

 shores of the Mediterranean, while the ibex 

 from the mountain ledges looks down upon 

 its blue waters and there they stop ; there 

 is no sign of them in North Africa. As for 

 the bear, there is no trace of it in historic 

 times to the south of Madrid, while the 

 chamois (izard) is not found below the 

 Pyrenees and the Cantabrian range ; but 

 otherwise the main continental fauna is well 

 represented. Even among birds, in spite of 

 their powers of flight, there are some re- 

 markable features and irregularities in dis- 

 tribution. There is an indigenous Iberian 

 short-toed lark, quite different from the 

 ordinary species of the rest of Europe, though 

 barely distinguishable from an inhabitant 

 of North Africa ; there is a larger lark with 

 a decurved bill belonging to an African, 

 and almost a Saharan, group ; the Iberian 

 green woodpecker differs from, that of 

 all the rest of Europe ; and there is 

 a fine white-shouldered eagle, the repre- 

 sentative of the Eastern imperial eagle, 

 which is barely known this side of 

 Italy. For the nearest relative of the 

 beautiful Iberian azure - winged magpie 

 ( Cyanopica cooki} all Europe and the greater 

 part of Asia must be crossed, until South- 

 Eastern Siberia and China are reached. 

 Our familiar pie is found throughout Spain 

 down to the woods of the Guadalquivir; 

 but in the mountainous districts of the 

 Alpuj arras and on the skirts of the Sierra 

 Nevada the magpies become dark, and 

 exhibit decided affinities with a North 

 African species. The Spanish grey shrike 

 is virtually confined to the Peninsula, where 

 its range extends to the extreme southern 

 shores ; yet the bird never crosses the in- 

 tervening ten or twelve miles to Africa, nor 

 does its representative there a species 

 which only a naturalist can distinguish 



ever invade Spain. An orange - eating 

 bulbul (Pycnonotus) is found at Tangier, 

 but never crosses the Straits to the land 

 which is said to be "famous for oranges 

 and pretty women." The buff - backed 

 heron (the representative of the Eastern 



"paddy-bird") breeds freely in the south 

 of Spain, but the rest of Europe hardly 

 knows it,' even in swamps apparently 

 the most suitable, and to find it again we 

 must visit North Africa. The little three- 

 toed quail is another African species found 

 breeding locally in the palmetto (Chamserops) 

 scrub of Andalucia, and also near Grirgenti, 

 where Sicily is almost in sight of Tunisia ; 

 nowhere else in Europe. These are only a 

 few of the points which occur to us, and it 

 may be imagined that the natural history 

 of a country which presents these paradoxes 

 is worth writing about. 



In a book which deals with facts set down 

 in the most straightforward manner it is 

 not easy to find passages suitable for quota- 

 tion, for even Major Verner's feats on the 

 cliffs and his narrow escapes when visiting 

 the nests of eagles and vultures are not 

 fully described here. The nests were in 

 such and such a place, of such materials, 

 and contained so many eggs on such a 

 date ; but there is nothing to make your 

 flesh creep. We notice that the experiences 

 of all the contributors to this work are to 

 the effect that the bearded vulture often 

 called Liimmergeier is simply a scavenger, 

 and never attempts to touch kids, lambs, or 

 indeed any living mammal. It is much if 

 the maligned bird occasionally takes a snake 

 or a lizard, though it certainly does pick up 

 small tortoises (as it does bones) and drop 

 them on the rocks to break them : a per- 

 formance which is said to have caused the 

 death of /Eschylus, and the tradition of 

 which once saved the life of a bearded 

 vulture. Turning to smaller birds, there 

 is a novel and interesting description 

 of the nesting habits of the handsome 

 black wheatear, a lively sooty bird with a 

 white rump, which is locally known as 

 pedrero, from its habit of building founda- 

 tions of small stones, and even a wall or 

 screen in front of its nest. One of these 

 barriers of which an illustration is given 

 was 9 in. long, the same in width, 2 in. 

 high, and consisted of 282 stones, while 

 the foundation contained 76 more, the 

 total weight of the stones being 4lb. 

 Then there are some valuable bits of in- 

 formation respecting the names of birds, 

 illustrating Arab superstitions, as in the 

 passage referring to the white owl which 

 is too long to quote and that on the lap- 

 wing. We always wondered why the latter 

 bore the trivial name Judia in Spain 

 (El Thudi in Morocco), but it appears that 

 " the superstitious Arabs believe that these 

 birds are Jews changed into the shape of 

 birds, and also believe that they retain all 

 their Israelitish characteristics, even wear- 

 ing the black Hebrew skull-cap." And 

 with this we close our notice, having, we 

 trust, said enough to show that a book, 

 although technical, is not necessarily dry. 



