JUNE 22, 1899] 
intergrading forms as new sub-species, an opportunity 
that has been fully availed of by a few ambitious 
mammalogists more anxious to add to a personal 
reputation than to be of any special use or aid to the 
science which they pretend to advance.” 
This is strong. language, but there seems, in some 
instances, considerable justification for its use. 
Of one of the above-mentioned chipmunks, a life-sized 
figure is given, which may be taken as a good example 
of the author’s own sketches. Excellent as is this figure 
from a zoological standpoint, it cannot however compare 
in artistic effect with the reproduction of a photograph 
taken by the author of the deer-mouse (Peromyscus 
leucopus), which is perhaps the most exquisite in the 
whole book. The little creature is represented issuing 
from a maize-cob, on which it has been making a meal, 
and the half-frightened, stealthy expression of its head 
is most life-like. Although in our opinion the best of 
all, this is only one among a number of photographs of 
various beasts and birds taken by the author himself. 
Of the few chapters devoted to mammals, all but one 
treat of the smaller representatives of the class ; but, as 
if to make up for this, the one exception takes cognisance 
of the largest of living creatures—to wit, whales. After 
reading a statement in the introduction to the effect that 
technical matters were, so far as possible, excluded from 
the work, we confess to a feeling of surprise at finding 
nearly three pages of the chapter in question occupied 
by a technical list of American Cetaceans, many of the 
names in which are mere synonyms. Apart from this, 
the chapter is a remarkably interesting one, although it 
would have been better had some of the illustrations 
been reduced in size. In view of recent discoveries by 
the Prince of Monaco, we thought, on first reading the 
book, that the author was sadly behind the time in his 
statement that all the markings on Risso’s dolphin are 
normal and not due to conflicts ; but this apparent want 
of revision is fully explained by the date on the title- 
page. To the same cause may perhaps be attributed 
the author’s relegation of Zeuglodon (misspelt, by the 
way, Zenglodon) to a position near the seals, as Prof. 
Damer’s interesting memoir, in which its ancestral 
cetacean characters are so well brought out, was probably 
not published in time. 
To refer to the other chapters would be to largely exceed 
our space; and all we can therefore do is to commend 
the work to the best attention of our readers as an 
admirable example of what popular natural history 
should be. Well printed and charmingly and profusely 
illustrated, it should be welcome alike to young and 
old, to the professed naturalist and to the non-scientific 
lover of nature. IRL 
THE SONGS OF BIRDS. 
Cries and Call-Notes of Wild Birds. By C. A. Witchell. 
Pp. xi + 84. (London: Upcott Gill, 1899.) 
N this book the author carefully describes the cries of 
over a hundred of the commoner species of birds 
which are to be heard in or near gardens of towns, 
woodlands, uplands and riverside. No reader who is at 
all interested in birds can fail to be impressed with the 
diligence and patience shown in collecting so much de- 
NO. 1547, VOL. 60] 
NATURE 
171 
tailed information, and with the extraordinary powers of 
ear which the author seems to possess. 
The cries of birds, as Mr. Witchell implies in his pre- 
face, are more readily distinguished from one another by 
differences of timbre than by differences of musical pitch. 
Owing to the fact that most birds sing at a very high 
pitch, it is exceedingly difficult for the human ear to 
recognise the intervals with certainty. Moreover, the 
vocal apparatus of a bird is such that he naturally pro- 
duces several sounds within the compass of one tone of 
our musical scale ; and it is for this reason that nearly 
all attempts to translate a bird’s song into our musical 
notation are failures. Though familiar with the cries of 
most of the birds Mr. Witchell mentions, we have been 
quite unable to recognise several of the strains given in 
his book when played on the piano. Some of the 
musical illustrations would remind the hearer of the 
song if he were already familiar with it, but we doubt 
if they would convey much idea of it to any one else. 
Descriptions of the cries of birds by means of syllables 
and words are generally very difficult to interpret. It is 
easy to make the syllables fit the song when that is 
known, but the syllables give little idea of a song which 
is unknown to the reader, because there are no universally 
recognised rules for their pronunciation. Mr. Witchell 
has been at great pains, but we do not think really 
satisfactory results can be obtained in the representation 
of birds’ cries by either of the methods he has employed. 
There are few inaccurate statements in the book ; but 
the author is mistaken when he writes concerning the 
song-notes of the great tit, “It is noteworthy that none 
of our other titmice have any of these cries.” The coal 
tit sings a song not very unlike the ringing note of the 
great tit, which is represented by the words “chingsee, 
chingsee.” We have spent many hours listening to 
grasshopper warblers ; but we never yet heard one reel 
for five minutes without a break, nor for even half that 
time. And we think the author is unjust to the song of 
the mistle-thrush when he says, “the listener may be led 
to imagine that some very musical bantam or other such 
bird is crowing.” 
In the present work Mr. Witchell has not set himself 
to discuss the various problems concerning bird-notes, 
but he incidentally makes assumptions which seem 
to require more evidence to justify them. Thus he 
writes : 
“In January and February the songs of the blackbird 
are much shorter than those heard in May, the young 
birds of the preceding year requiring some practice before 
attaining proficiency ” ; 
and again he says of the skylark : 
“These autumn songs seem to be mostly those of 
young birds of the year, and consist mainly of repetitions 
of the call-notes, with the addition of a few more musical 
sounds.” 
We should like to have more evidence to show that 
these are songs of the young birds. It is well known 
that in February many chaffinches can be heard singing 
which apparently find it difficult to finish the song 
correctly. Mr. Witchell makes no mention of this ; but 
surely he would not say that all these chaffinches are 
young birds. 
There is yet another point on which we differ with Mr. 
