Bibliographical Notices. 115 



and when the latter birds have picked the bones of a carcass bare, 

 the Bearded Vultures come down and, swallowing the smaller bones, 

 carry off the larger into the air, and, letting them drop from a great 

 height upon the rocks, devour the fragments at their leisure." More- 

 over, not content with dwelling upon the supposed rarity of this 

 species in Spain, the Crown Prince goes on to say that " in all high 

 mountains, whether situated in Central or Southern Europe, Northern 

 Africa, or Central Asia, it is very much the reverse [of common] ; " yet, 

 on p. 566, he tells us that it still inhabits the Retyezat, Transylvania, 

 "in considerable numbers"! The statement that the Spanish 

 " Stein" Eagle is characterized by " a white tail tipped with black " 

 is quite misleading, and can only apply to immature examples, for 

 in adult Golden Eagles from Spain the rectrices are just like those 

 in Scottish specimens. The fact is that in Spain the Crown Prince 

 was forced, like everyone else in that country, to try and find 

 things out for himself ; whereas on the Danube and throughout the 

 Austro-Hungarian Empire he was naturally a great personage, for 

 whom everything was, to use a vulgar phrase, " cut and dried " by 

 obsequious proprietors and foresters. In saying this we do not for 

 one moment wish to detract from his merits as a sportsman and a 

 naturalist, for he was undoubtedly both. He never shunned hard 

 work, and the reader will be struck by his wonderful energy, keen 

 enjoyment of wild life and scenery, and his exuberant animal spirits, 

 these features being especially noticeable in the descriptions of the 

 visit to the Danube, the journey to the East, and the sketches from 

 Hungary, Transylvania, &c. On the whole the book is very inter- 

 esting, though the style is somewhat wordy and monotonous, a 

 fault which the translator was unable to rectify. Eor the rest, Mr. 

 Danford has performed his task with great ability and is entitled 

 to the thanks of all true naturalists ; the general style of the 

 volume is admirable, and the type is bold and clear. 



The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Banna. Edited 

 by \V. T. Blanford. Fishes, by Francis Day. 2 vols. 8vo. 

 London : Taylor and Francis, 1889. 



About a twelvemonth ago we noticed the commencement of this 

 valuable series of Handbooks of Indian Zoology, on the publication 

 of the first part of Dr. W. T. Blanford's account of Indian Mam- 

 malia. As then indicated the task of describing the Fishes had 

 been entrusted to Dr. Francis Day, whose great illustrated work, 

 ' The Fishes of India,' was already established as the authority on 

 this part of the Fauna of our Eastern Empire, and iu the course of 

 the year which has just terminated the two volumes devoted to the 

 class Pisces have made their appearance. These volumes must be 

 regarded with a somewhat melancholy interest not only because 

 they are the last records of a life, many years of which were 

 zealously devoted to the study of the subjects of which they treat, 

 but also from the consideration that the author did not even live to 



