THE ZooLocist—NovVEMBER, 1876. 5137 
Hotices of Hew Books. 
Rambles of a Naturalist. By J. H. Gurney, jun., F.Z.S. Demy 
8vo. London: Jarrold and Sons, 3, Paternoster Buildings ; 
and London Street, Norwich. 
THE contents of this book sufficiently prove the correctness of 
the title bestowed upon the author by certain of his friends, who 
are accustomed to speak of him as “the indefatigable”; for we 
find in it pleasaut chitchat on birds observed by him during a 
journey to Russia and back; notes from his journal on a collecting 
tour in the Algerian Sahara; notes during the Franco-German 
War; an account of six months spent among the birds of Egypt; 
some passing notes on the birds of Italy ; an analysis of the claims 
of certain birds to be accounted British; additions to the avi-fauna 
of Durham; and other matter. The larger portion of the book is 
occupied by Mr. Gurey’s experiences in Egypt. How in- 
dustrious he was there is instanced by the list of birds he himself 
obtained, numbering some two hundred and twenty species; he 
was fortunate enough to come across one species supposed to be 
unknown to ornithologists as occurring in Egypt, the lesser white- 
fronted goose, but in a subsequent note Mr. Gurney states that he 
was not the first to detect this goose in Egypt, it having been 
already noticed in the Delta; and he was able to establish the 
certainty of other birds frequenting that country which had been 
admitted by previous writers with some hesitancy, such as the 
marbled duck, our English swift, the honey buzzard, Montagu’s 
harrier, and Baillon’s crake. 
It was little to be expected that much that was new could be 
said on the birds of Egypt, after the numerous treatises which 
have issued of late years from Continental and English writers, 
and Mr. Gurney is to be congratulated on having achieved so 
much on a well-worked field. The voyage up the Nile to the 
first Cataract has become a fashionable winter excursion for 
invalids and sportsmen; and we hare reaped the fruits of this in 
the able papers upon the Ornithology of the country which have 
appeared from time to time in the ‘Ibis, from Dr. Leith Adams, 
Mr. Cavendish Taylor, and Captain Shelley. The last has pub- 
lished his various notes in a single volume, which forms the best 
authority we have on Egyptian Ornithology. 
