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The British Warblers — A History, with Problems of their Lives. 

 By H. Eliot Howard, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. Part III. 

 Coloured and Photogravure Plates. (R. H. Porter.) 21s. 

 net per part. 



We have already given an appreciative notice (Vol. II., p. 67) 

 of the first two parts of this interesting work. This third 

 part is chiefly concerned with the Blackcap, though two pages 

 each are given to Pallas's Willow- Warbler and Radde's Bush- 

 Warbler. The plates, four of which are in colour, and nine in 

 monochrome, are all by Mr. H. Gronvold, and attain that 

 high standard of excellence which marked the work of the 

 same artist in the first two parts. In our first notice we 

 questioned the wisdom of the author's plan of including 

 the rarer British Warblers only to dismiss them in scanty 

 fashion, so that we need not here consider his treatment of 

 Phylloscopus proregulus and Lusciniola schwarzi. We therefore 

 pass on to Mr. Howard's discussions of the habits of the 

 Blackcap, and it is his detailed descriptions of the habits, and 

 especially the "courting" habits of the birds of which he 

 writes, that make his book so valuable. We find in the 

 account of the habits of the Blackcap ample evidence of the 

 same close and unwearying observation in the field as was 

 shown in the first two parts. As the author has demonstrated 

 is the case with other Warblers, so the male Blackcap generally 

 arrives before the female and occupies a well defined territory, 

 which he holds against all other males. In stating that the 

 male generally pairs with the first female that settles on this 

 territory the author seems to overlook entirely what we have 

 pointed out (Vol. II., p. 67) is a fair assumption, viz., that if 

 the male returns to the same territory year after year then the 

 female does, too, and therefore that migrants may be said to 

 pair for life. We may here suggest that many birds which 

 go in flocks in the winter also pair for life, for after all 

 a flock is very often but a collection of families, and it 

 is only reasonable to suppose that the parents keep together 

 when the flock breaks up in the spring. The mere fact that 

 birds often resort year after year to the same nesting site 

 seems to afford proof that they mate for life. Amongst birds 

 which flock in the winter we have the well-known case 

 quoted by the late Professor Newton {Diet, of Birds, p. 553) 



