NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 263 
Those who are aware of the rarity of the Dotterel (Hudromias 
morinellus) in England during the nesting season will naturally 
turn with curiosity to the account given of that bird in the book 
before us (pp. 188—138), the greater part of which consists of a 
narrative by Mr. F. Nicholson, “embodying the results of an 
unequalled acquaintance” with this bird in its north-country 
breeding haunts. While referring to the older records relating 
to this species, our authors might as well have noticed “the 
mical Doterall,” mentioned in the Machell MSS. (vol. i. p. 137), 
and called the “mical” (t.e., mickle or great) Dotterel, to 
distinguish it from the smaller Ringed Dotterel (Aigialitis 
hiaticula). This allusion to the Machell MSS. reminds us that 
it would have been better to mention these in the Introduction, 
under the head of MS. information (p. xv), instead of by way of 
Appendix at the end of the volume. 
On the same page of the Introduction it would have been well 
to give the date (1675) of Edmund Sandford’s MS. Description of 
Cumberland, or rather the MS. which is attributed to Sandford 
(a gentleman of good family in the county), for we believe his 
name does not occur on the face of it. We have not had an 
opportunity of consulting the original MS., which is preserved 
in the library of the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle, but, if 
Jefferson’s quotation from it be accurate (Hist. and Antiq. Carlisle, 
1838, p. 361), it will be necessary to make a slight correction on 
page 125 of the ‘ Birds of Cumberland,’ namely, for “ black heath 
cocke and more cockes” read ‘‘ black heath-cockes and brone 
more-cockes.”’ 
At p. xiii of the Introduction, Mr. Macpherson, referring to 
Robinson’s ‘ Essay towards a Natural History of Westmorland 
and Cumberland,’ 1709, says that this author records the presence 
of Swans in the lakes [Bassenthwaite Lake, p. 60], “but his 
ocular observations appear to have been confined to subterranean 
matters.” ‘This is not quite correct, for in the second part of the 
book, on “The Power of Natural Instinct,” are several original 
observations on Frogs, Ants, Bees, and Birds, some of which 
might have been appropriately quoted under the head of the 
species to which they relate. As the book in question is not a 
particularly common one, we may quote two of the observations 
relating to birds, one having reference to the Moorhen, the other 
to the Rook :— 
