EVIEW5 



Field-Studies of Some Barer British Birds. By Jolin Walpole- 

 Bond. pp. xii.-305. (London : Witherby & Co., 1914.) 

 7s. 6d. net. 



Mr. Walpole-Bond's book is a welcome change from the 

 dreary succession of compilations on the subject of British 

 Birds which continues to issue from the press. It has at 

 any rate the merit of fresliness, and is the result of first-hand 

 information, besides furnishing further proof, if any were 

 needed, that it is possible for a man to be a keen collector, 

 and at the same time a close and accuiate observer. Such 

 ^\ork must almost necessarily be uneven, for few men are 

 equally conversant with the habits of all our rarer birds. 

 Thus the chapter on the highland haunts of Eagles is little 

 more than a record of a nesting foray, while that on the 

 Buzzard, on the other hand, gives a very full and complete 

 account of the economy of this fine bird. 



In a brief preface Mr. Walpole-Bond utters a Avord of 

 warning against dogmatism with regard to the habits of 

 birds, and explains that his statements must be taken as 

 applying only within the limits of personal observation. 

 Yet, in an excellent chapter on the Peregrine, he falls into the 

 fault referred to. " Clutches of five and even six eggs," 

 says our author, " I have read of, but in these I place no 

 faith whatever." There is evidence that clutches of six 

 are occasionally met with in the British Isles, though it is 

 not quite conclusive. (See M. A. Mathew's Birds of 

 Pembrokeshire,^. 54, and the Zoologist, 1869, p. 1670). With 

 regard to the five-clutch, the evidence is indisputable in 

 the case of one taken by Mr. W. M. Congreve in South Wales 

 and now in his possession ; and the fact that it was found 

 in the same district in which Mr. Tracy's observations were 

 made, tends to confirm the statement of the latter. There 

 is also a reference to the subject in Saxby's Birds of Shetland, 

 p. 18. It should not be forgotten also that the North 

 American race of the Peregrine (F. peregrinus anatum) also 

 undoubtedly lays up to six eggs. Two instances Avill be found 

 recorded in the Ank, 1906, p. 99. Similarly other large 

 falcons have been kno\vTi to exceed the limit of four : the 

 Iceland Falcon does so occasionally, and the writer has on 

 two occasions taken nests of the Saker Falcon with five eggs. 



