The Zoologist— October, 1867. 020 



eggs, and Messrs. Yarrell, Meyer, Doubleday and Adams assert this 

 number to be the complement; my Carnarvonshire find, however, in- 

 cluded several sets of four ; consequently, unless two females had laid 

 in one nest in each instance (a most unlikely supposition), the latter 

 must be held as the actual complement of the eggs of this species, 

 which, by the by, keeps much more apart from its fellows in the nesting 

 than is the case with the common, Sandwich, and perhaps other 

 terns. Two nestings of the ringed dotterel were likewise discovered 

 upon this bank, and as both species were also found breeding near, on 

 the Carnarvonshire station before mentioned, it may be supposed that 

 no antagonism exists between them, but the lesser tern probably keeps 

 at a distance from larger birds as the oystercatcher, during incubation. 

 To sum up shortly the result of the day's most interesting operations, 

 the anticipated common and arctic terns were wholly unseen, — oyster- 

 catchers seen, and presumed to breed sparingly, — ringed dotterels and 

 lesser terns incubating more numerously, — all on banks of the sea-beach, 

 the shieldrakes and stock doves breeding freely among the sand-hills 

 inland. In concluding, the writer may refer to a paper of his "On 

 the Archaeology and Natural History of the Mersey District for the 

 past Three Years, 1863 — 65," for further and unrecorded notices of the 

 breeding in our own neighbourhood of many of the species above 

 mentioned ; it was read before a meeting of the Historic Society of 

 Lancashire and Cheshire on the 3rd of May last. 



H. Ecroyd Smith. 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



' Pigeons, their Structure, Habits and Varieties? By W. B. TegeT- 

 meier, F.Z.S. With Coloured Illustrations of the Varieties by 

 Harrison Weir. London : Routledge. 1867. 



"First, positively, a pigeon is a pigeon, and a pullet is a pullet; 

 and second, negatively, a pigeon is not a pullet, and a pullet is not a 

 pigeon." I am not inclined to dispute these somewhat dogmatic 

 definitions, since they certainly possess the racy flavour of truthful- 

 ness, although there is perhaps not much to be said as to their depth 

 or originality : moreover, something might be added without running 

 the risk of being charged with obscuring and overwhelming the sub- 

 ject with a superfluous display of erudition. The sacred volume 

 second series— vol. ii. 3 F 



