3326 THE ZooLocist—DeEcEMBER, 1872. 
include the stumbling-block also. Seeing that my friend can show that Heli- 
goland is British in the same sense as Guernsey and Jersey,—and prove that 
it is included in the “ United Kingdom,” as intended by our Acts of Parlia- 
ment,—by all manner of means let us call it British, and incorporate 
its Fauna with that of Great Britain properly so called. With regard to 
Gibraltar and Malta, we had better defer the question of annexing their 
Fauna until botanists have annexed their Flora, when we may with con- 
siderable show of propriety consider such a step. It seems incumbent on 
those who advocate the adoption with our Fauna of a different course from 
that universally accepted for our Flora, to state explicitly the grounds for 
maintaining such a usage. Does any other country in the world adopt such 
a course? Does any country in the world consider its plants indigenous and 
the creatures that feed on them exotic? But my friend says “the sea is a 
definite boundary”; true, yet this argument would not only eliminate the 
Channel Islands, but would cut off all the Scottish islands, the Isle of Man 
Ireland, and even the Isle of Wight—Edward Newman. 
Sotices of Hew Books. 
A Handbook of British Birds; showing the Distribution of the 
Resident and Migratory Species in the British Islands, 
with an Index to the Records of the Rarer Visitants. By 
J.E, Harrine, F.LS., F.Z.S., &c. London: Van Voorst. 1872. 
Some of us who possess the writings of Montagu, Selby, Mac- 
gillivray and Yarrell may possibly think there was no need of 
another work on British Birds: 
*« Practical ornithologists, however, who may take up this Handbook will 
see in it an attempt to supply a want which, notwithstanding the admirable 
works above referred to, they must have frequently experienced ; for in two 
important respects, at least, do these fail to satisfy their requirements: 
they do not distinguish with sufficient clearness the species which are truly 
indigenous to Great Britain from those which are but rare and occasional 
visitants; nor do they indicate, with sufficient authority, the scientific 
nomenclature which should be adopted for the species of which they take 
cognizance.’ —Introduction, p. iii. 
I particularly recommend the “ Indroduction,” from which this 
is quoted, to the readers of the ‘ Zoologist’: it has been compiled 
with the most evident care, and in a spirit of perfect truthfulness. 
It gives 395 as the corrected total of birds which have been recog- 
nized as occurring in Great Britain. “Of these in round numbers 
