Bibliographical Notices. 381 



without noting any thing unusual. As it was, I had stood within a 

 few feet for several minutes, and had passed my eyes over and over 

 again across the place without finding it. Once, and once only, it 

 raised its head, and immediately afterwards dived, going under very 

 quietly and leaving hardly a ripple ; this time I saw it emerge on 

 the drain side about the same distance, namely twenty yards. 

 Just then a flight of Plover passed, at which I fired ; and I think 

 the report must have caused it to rise, as, although I spent an hour 

 in looking up and down the drain, and returned again, at a later 

 period in the day, I saw it no more." (Page 140.) 



Vast numbers of Guillemots ( Uria troile) and Razor-bills {Alca 

 torda) breed on the precipitous ens' of Flamborough Head, as well 

 as in various similar localities on the coasts of the British Islands. 

 We ourselves have never had the good fortune to observe the mode 

 in which the mother birds safely convey their young to the water 

 from their aerial nurseries on the upper ledges, although we have 

 often watched patiently for hours, in the vain hope of witnessing 

 the performance. Indeed until now we never met with a satis- 

 factory solution of the mystery ; but here it is : — 



" When the young are partly fledged, and even when they are 

 quite little things, the old birds carry them down to the sea on their 

 backs. This is done late in the evening, after sunset. The Flam- 

 borough boatmen say that when they are fishing under the Speeton 

 Cliff's, on summer evenings, they have often observed this process of 

 carrying the young down, the little fellow clinging to its parent's 

 back, and not unfrequently tumbling from the somewhat precarious 

 perch into the sea sooner than was intended." (Page 184.) 



We must now take leave of this, the latest contribution to the 

 avifauna of the British Islands, which, as a careful and paiustaldng 

 record of the arrival of our migratory birds on the shores and flats 

 of the wild and interesting region to which the author's remarks 

 have been hmited, may be regarded as almost exhaustive ; and we 

 heartily recommend, as a model for future monographers with 

 similar tastes and equal opportunities, this charming little volume on 

 the " birds of the Humber District." 



Lecture on the Ferce Naturae of the British Islands. 

 By John CoLaxrHOUN, Author of ' The Moor and the Loch,' &c. 



If quality, not quantity, is the test of merit, then is the littlo 

 brochure before us (for its modest dimensions forbid a claim to a 

 more ambitious title) deserving of our warmest commendation. 

 Though purporting to be simply " a lecture delivered to the 

 St. Steven's Young Men's Literary Society," yet it contains matter 

 that might easily be expanded into a goodly volume. Indeed the 

 pleasure we have experienced in perusing its few though charming 

 pages induces us to regard with envy the favoured audience who 

 enjoyed the still greater treat of listening to the instructive words 

 of such an observant naturalist and dexterous sportsman as the 

 author of * The Moor and the Loch.' 



