Recently published Ornithological Works. 759 



represented by 255 species (exclusive of a few '' douljtfuls " 

 in squai'e brackets)^ the known facts concerning each as a 

 member of the local avifauna being well stated in the usual 

 sliort articles allowed for in the plau of the series. In addition 

 to the strictly local records, the author has not liesitated to 

 refer to occurrences beyond the prescribed limits when it 

 was thought that light was thereby thrown on the species as 

 a '^ Tweed ^' bird. As examples of the application of this 

 broadening of the outlook, the articles on the Waxwing, 

 Pied Flycatcher, and Stock- Dove maybe cited. The Wood- 

 Sandpiper, we are told, is a ''rare summer visitor, which 

 arrives early in May and leaves in August or September,^' 

 surely too high an estimate of its status, at the present day 

 at any rate*. With regard to the Classification and Nomen- 

 clature of the Birds, Mr. Evans has not thought it wise to 

 alter them from those used in previous volumes of the scries, 

 a course Avhich, though departed from in the case of the 

 Mammals, may in the circumstances be expected to commend 

 itself to all but a few extremists. One alteration, liowever, 

 lias crept in : for Parus palustris has been substituted Parus 

 dresseri, a doubtful improvement, seeing that the only form 

 of "Marsh" Tit proved to occur in the area is stated to be the 

 so-called British Willow-Tit. It does not appear that the 

 lighthouses on St. Abb's Head and the Fame Islands have 

 yet been utilised to any great extent in the detection of rare 

 Passeres on migration ; when they are, some interesting 

 additions to the local list may be anticipated. 



The volume, like its predecessors, is handsomely got up 

 and illustrated, though in the matter of reproduction some of 

 the plates are perhaps a little disappointing. In the choice of 

 localities for illustration the chief consideration has rightly 

 been their connexion past or [)rcseiit with intt^resting species. 

 A wide range of subjects is thus depicted. Pecblesshii'c, 

 however, is unrepresented. 



* [Mr. W. Evans desires it to be made knowu that the statement in 

 the footnote on p. 210 of the " Tweed " vol. regarding the Wood-Sand- 

 piper has been attributed to liim through some misunderstanding. — Edd.] 



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