NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 387 
abdominal fins very much smaller; the second dorsal and anal fins very 
small. As this is the only specimen I have seen here during a residence of 
more than forty years, it may be worth noting.—SrtrrHen Cxroae (Looe). 
PILcHARDS ON THE CornisH Coast.—We are now (July 19th) taking 
Pilchards in full roe. The milt and roe are both fully developed. These 
are our first arrivals in any large quantities. About twenty-five years ago 
the Pilchard used to arrive on this coast in force about the third week in 
June. The date of their appearance has been gradually getting later, until 
now we do not see them in force until the third week in July —Tuomas 
CornisH (Penzance). 
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 
The History of the Squirrel in Great Britain. By J. A. Harviz 
Brown, F.R.S.E., F.Z.S.  8vo, pp. 183, with a Map. 
Reprinted from the ‘Proceedings of the Royal Physical 
Society of Edinburgh,’ vol. v. Edinburgh: M‘Farlane and 
Erskine. 1881. 
On the Introduction of the Squirrel into Ireland. By Ricuarp 
M. Barrineton, M.A., LL.B. 8vo, pp. 17, with a Map. 
Reprinted from the ‘Scientific Proceedings of the Royal 
Dublin Society.’ Dublin: Thom & Co. 1881. 
Tue notion of selecting some particular mammal or bird, 
and treating its life-history and distribution in the British Islands 
monographically, is a good one, and we should like to see more 
of this kind of work. In ‘The Zoologist’ for 1879 (p. 468) we 
reviewed an important essay of the kind, by Mr. Harvie Brown, 
‘On the Capercaillie in Scotland,” and his more recently pub- 
lished articles in this journal on the Rarer Animals of Scotland 
will be fresh in the minds of our readers. We have now before 
us a most interesting account of the Squirrel, in which the writer 
traces its distribution throughout Scotland, and discusses the 
question whether it is an introduced species or originally indi- 
genous. His researches tend to prove that it was known to, or 
at least mentioned by, early writers as a native of some parts of 
Scotland, and had apparently a wide distribution in the pine 
woods and country north of the Firths of Forth and Clyde; that 
