Bibliographical Notice. 67 



they present no characters by which the Chathara-Islaad bones 

 can be generically distinguished from the Mauritian, and tliat 

 they both belong to the same genus, Aphanapteryx, though 

 perhaps they may constitute two species. 



BIBLIOGIIAPHICAL NOTICE. 



Wild Spain (^Espaha cKjreste) : Records of Sport ivith Itijie, Hod, 

 and Gun, Natural Historij and Exploration. By Abel CnAPiiA.N 

 and Walter J. Buck. London : Griirney and Jackson, 1893. 



No reader wdl close this book without admitting that it is at least 

 the production of authors who are thoroughly conversant with then- 

 subject ; and that is a great deal more than can truthfully be said of 

 a large number of works on Spain, many of which are made up of 

 the grumbles or the gushings of the very ordinary tourist, with 

 descriptions — compiled from guide-books — of the principle auti- 

 quities and utterly impossible versions of bull-fights. There is no 

 padding of that kind in the present work ; no cathedral or picture- 

 gallery is ever mentioned; and it is much if the word "railway" 

 occurs incidentally, although in travelling from the great plains to 

 the south of Seville or the Sierra Nevada — beloved of the ibex — to 

 the snows of the Sierra de Gredos and the trout-streams of Biscay, 

 railways are useful accessories. This sketch of Espana agreste — 

 rural, sport-affording Spain — is redolent of the keen air of the 

 mountains, the indescribable freshness which, even in the heat of 

 summer, is wafted across the marisma, and the spicy resiu-laden 

 odour of the /nnalen ; and, as such, it will commend itself to every 

 true lover of nature. To many of our readers Mr. Chapmau is 

 already known by his ' Bird-life on the Border '^which we noticed 

 favourably al)out foiu- years ago — and his excellent articles on the 

 ornithology of Spain contributed to 'The Ibis'; while Mr. Buck 

 has long been a resident at Jerez, and is one of the keenest sports- 

 men in the Peninsula. And they have shown no undue haste in 

 ])ublishing their experiences, for more than twenty years have 

 elapsed since they commenced those sporting excursions Avhich have 

 extended to the present day and have resulted in the handsome 

 and profusely illustrated work now before us. 



Spontaneity and an absence of efi'ort are noticeable features of 

 the book, and another characteristic is the mixednoss of its con- 

 tents, resembling in this respect those alias which are a household 

 word in connexion with Spanish cookery. Sometimes, as in the 

 cliapters on the fighting-bull of Spain, brigandage, agriculture, and 

 viticulture (with important observations on crops, horse-breeding, 

 live-stock, the olive, and the vine), the gypsies, past and present, 

 &.C., we detect the preponderance of the experienced resident in the 

 person of Mr. Buck; other chapters show joint cullaboratiou, aud it 



