294 
NATURE 
NATURAL HISTORY AND TRAVEL... 
HE latest addition to Messrs. Witherby’s well 
ty got-up series of volumes on the life-histories 
of British birds, four of which, dealing with the 
golden eagle, the osprey, the spoonbill, the stork, 
and some herons, have already been issued, is 
quite equal to its predecessors as a contribution 
to ornithology. The four species of terns (1) are 
its subject-matter; and the author, Mr Bickerton, 
is to be congratulated for the excellence of his 
photographs showing the eggs, the young and 
adult birds, and the nesting-sites, as well as for the 
time and labour devoted to securing them, and to 
compiling the voluminous notes embodied in the 
text. To the ordinary reader the text is naturally 
somewhat tedious on account of its prolixity and 
repetitions, unavoidably due to the similarity in 
mode of life of the species described; and the 
value of the volume would have been increas2d 
by the addition of a short chapter 
summarising the results, and 
pointing out briefly the differences 
in. habit between the several 
species. This is the only criti- 
cism, ‘however, we have to offer 
of an admirable and painstaking 
piece of work; and we trust 
Mr. Bickerton will. be able to 
find the, leisure to observe and 
record the habits of other groups 
of British birds in a similar way. 
“The Charm of the Hills’’ (2) 
is mainly a collection of reprints 
of articles already published in 
various periodicals, such as the 
Scotsman and Country Life. The 
book is divided into two parts, 
chapters i, to xxxi. being a mis- 
cellaneous series of disconnected 
chapters dealing mostly with 
certain aspects of bird-life in the 
Scotch highlands, while the 
second part, entitled, ‘The 
Year on the Hills,” also devoted 
mainly to birds, recounts observations upon 
their. habits in the Cairngorm mountains 
in spring, summer, autumn, and __ winter. 
Mr. Seton Gordon is an_ enthusiastic and 
trustworthy field-naturalist, and while he writes 
feelingly and well about his own personal experi- 
ences, his book contains a great deal that is 
interesting and instructive to those for whom wild 
life in the mountains has a fascination. 
Photographed and 
(London : 
1 (x) ** The Home-life of the Terns or Sea Swallows.’ 
Described by W. Bickerton. Pp. 88+xxxii mounted plates. 
Witherbv and Co., 1912.) Price 6s. net. 
(2) “ The Charm of the Hills." By S. Gordon. 
Cassell and Co., Ltd., 1912.) Price ros. 6d. net. 
(3) “The Flowing Road,” Adventuring on the Great Rivers of South 
America. By C. Whitney. 
Price ras. 6d. net. 
(4) “Wild Life and the Camera.” By A. R, Dugmore, 
(London : W. Heinemann, 1912.) Price 6s. net. 
(s) “Che Feet of the Furtive.”” By C.G. D. Roberts. 
Ward, Lock, and-Co., | td., 1912.) Price 6s. 
Pp. xiv+248. (London : 
Pp. 319. (London: W. Heinemann, 1912.) 
Pp. xi+332 
Pp. 277. (London: 
(6) ‘Insect Workers.” By W. J. Claxton, Pp. xii+62. (London: 
Cassell and Co., Ltd., 1912.) Price 1s. net. 
(7) “Letters from Nature's Workshop.’ By W. J. Claxton. Pp, 192. 
(London: G. G. Harrap and Co., 1912.) Price 15. 6d. net. 
NO. 2297, VOL. 92] 
[NoveMBER 6, 1913 
“The Flowing Road” (3) is full of facts of 
interest both to the naturalist and the geographer. 
It is an account of five expeditions, mostly by 
canoe, along the rivers and streams of the 
northern countries of South America. Two of 
these were undertaken with the object of visiting 
a native people in the south-eastern corner of 
Venezuela, reported to be savage and unknown. 
The others, however, as the author tells us, were 
instigated ‘neither by a wish to hunt the beasts 
of the jungle . nor to report on the social or 
industrial conditions of the land, nor even to add 
to the sum of knowledge of the ‘ scientific ’ world 
—hbut solely to satisfy the hunger which incites me 
every now and again to go and ‘see things ’—the 
curiosity which Prof. Shale has called the 
primal instinct.” Despite this modest disclaimer, 
nevertheless Mr. Whitney’s narrative, setting 
forth the true nature of the areas traversed, and 
of the inhabitants found there, is a really valuable 
Fic. 1.—The Arctic tern—admirably protected by the surroundings on which it has settled. 
From * The Home life of the Terns or Sea Swallows,” by W. Bickerton. 
| contribution to many branches of knowledge; be- 
cause there are certainly few districts in the world 
lying beyond the beaten tracks of travel less 
accurately known than those drained by the 
Amazon and the Orinoco and their tributaries, and 
probably none, according to the author’s experi- 
ence, which have been so frequently and persist- 
ently misrepresented in printed accounts inspired 
by self-interest or based on the superficial observa- 
tions of casual tourists. 
Those who have heard Mr. Dugmore lecture 
would expect him to write entertainingly and well 
about the habits and characteristics of the animals 
with which he has had personal experience ; and 
those who have read his “Camera Adventures in 
the African Wilds,” will find “Wild Life and the 
Camera” (4) equally readable and trustworthy, 
although widely different in its subject-matter, 
which is confined to North American species. 
The greater number of the chapters are given 
