REVIEWS 



The Hastings and East Sussex Naturalist (Vol. I., No. 4 

 February 25th, 1909). 



This number of the Journal of the Hastings and St. Leonards 

 Natural History Society contains plenty to interest the 

 ornithologist. The Society is much to be congratulated upon 

 its vigour, and especially upon its strength in energetic and 

 capable ornithological members — we beheve it can boast of 

 more M.B.O.U.'s among its members than any other local 

 natural history society. The most important paper (pp. 

 153-173, plates XVIII.-XXIV.) in this number is one by our 

 own contributor, Mr. W. H. Mullens, on " Gilbert White and 

 Sussex." In this paper, which originally took the form of 

 a lecture delivered before the 12th Congress of the South- 

 Eastern Union of Scientific Societies, Mr. Mullens traces, with 

 great care and thoroughness, Gilbert White's intimate connec- 

 tion with Sussex, and especially with the villages of Harting, 

 near Petersfield, and Ringmer, near Lewes. He used to 

 journey into Sussex frequently, and he greatly loved the 

 Downs, of which he wrote : " I still investigate that chain of 

 majestic mountains with fresh admiration every time I traverse 

 it." There he saw Great Bustards and Kites, while along the 

 chalky cliffs of the Sussex shore " the Cornish Chough builds, 

 I know," he writes to Barrington. A careful paper is that by 

 Mr. M. J. Nicoll on the Pipits which occur in the Hastings 

 district. Here is recorded the fact, which we do not remember 

 to have seen in print before, that a pair of Tavmy Pipits 

 '' undoubtedly bred in Sussex in 1905, and again, possibly, the 

 following year," while in 1906 Mr. Nicoll saw an adult bird 

 collecting nesting materials (p. 183). Amongst the " Annual 

 Notes," by the Rev. E. N. Bloomfield, we may note the 

 following interesting records, which we do not think have 

 been previously referred to : — Red-footed Falcon, Ashford, 

 June 10th, 1908; Night-Heron, Lydd, October 3rd, 1906;. 

 Spoonbill, two, Romney Marsh, April 1st, 1908 (p. 187). 



