124 



NA TURE 



[December 12, 1907 



incorporation in the text. A full index and a large 

 map make reference to the species and localities easy. 



(3) One by one the English counties are getting their 

 bird-books, and the latest to acquire this distinction is 

 Rutland, by far the smallest of them all. Pre- 

 eminently an agricultural county, its natural features 

 present nothing striking, and do not show any great 

 diversity. Of its 100,000 acres, permanent pasture 

 absorbs more than half; not a hundred acres are waste 

 land or heath, and not 200 acres are water. But Mr. 

 Haines is surely far below- the mark when he states 

 that there are scarcely 400 acres of woodland. In 

 these circumstances he has done well in being able 

 to give so large a list as 200 of birds which have 

 occurred in this fruitful and profitable little bit of land, 

 Besides the natural disabilities of Rutland as a bird 

 resort, the historian of its ornithology has to contend 

 with a further drawback in the almost total lack of 

 notes bearing on the subject which date back more 

 than a hundred years. 



The one exception is to be found in the notes by 

 Thomas Barker, of Lyndon Hall, Gilbert White's 

 brother-in-law, and two of the earliest of these are 

 initialed by the historian of Selborne. But the notes 

 do not amount to much, and refer chiefly to the 

 arrival and departure, and the opening of song of less 

 than a score of species. The most interesting of them 

 is the wood-lark — a very rare bird now in Rutland. 

 A slip is made in describing the gentleman who 

 brought these notes to light as a descendant of Gilbert 

 White ! The later printed authorities are very few, 

 and although a work published in 1889 is entitled 

 "The Vertebrates of Leicestershire and Rutland," 

 the Rutland birds are very inadequately treated 

 therein. So that there was quite room for a new and 

 complete work on the subject, in the preparation of 

 which the present author has had the assistance of a 

 large number of observers. 



The general condition and character of the avifauna 

 of the county is treated in a lucid and interesting 

 manner in the concluding portion of the introduction, 

 and lists are given of the species which have increased 

 or decreased in recent years. Lists, too, are given of 

 the resident species which are subject to some migra- 

 tion, and of the whole of the species actually enumer- 

 ated as Rutland birds, showing their status in the 

 county. The references made to the habits and life- 

 histories of birds in the body of the work have been 

 drawn from observations made in Rutland itself. The 

 facts of most importance for British ornithologists in 

 general to be gleaned from the pages of this handy 

 little volume are : the eighth instance of the occurrence 

 of Bonaparte's gull ; the unique nesting of the bee- 

 eater ; the addition of Rutland to the counties where 

 the pied flycatcher has been seen ; the recent appear- 

 ance of the bearded tit in the county ; the acquisition 

 of the redshank as a nesting species ; the very early 

 return of the wryneck ; and the early nesting of the 

 corncrake and partridge. The author himself seems 

 to feel a little doubtful about the identification of the 

 Bonaparte's gull, and ornithologists in general will be 

 still more so ; while as for the nesting of the bee- 

 eater, we cannot help thinking that some mistake or 



NO. 19S9, VOL. yyl 



confusion of specimens occurred; the confusion in 

 which the authority for the record seemed to be about 

 the smaller grebes (p. 163) inclines us more strongly 

 to this view. 



The plates are pleasing, though thev have not all 

 of them much to do with Rutland especially. But 

 there is one which will puzzle most people. As the 

 jack snipe, the principal figure in it, is cut all to 

 pieces by the shot which has apparently been fired, and 

 is obviously dead in the air, we cannot see why the 

 picture should be called " .X Narrow Escape "; unless 

 the title refers to the dog, which does not appear to 

 have been hit ! We have, however, seen a plate in 

 another book which has a striking resemblance to 

 this one, but there it has another and more appro- 

 priate title. A good index and a map complete this 

 nicely got up little volume. 



ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING. 

 (i) A Text-book of Electrical Engineering. By Dr. 

 .\dolf Thomalen ; translated from the German by 

 G. W. O. Howe. Pp. viii + 456. (London: Ed- 

 ward Arnold, 1907.) Price 15s. net. 

 (2) The Elements of Electrical Engineering. By 

 Profs. W. .S. Franklin and Wm. Esty. Vol. i. 

 Direct-Current Machines, Electric Distrib^ition and 

 Lighting. Pp. xiii4-5i7. (New York: The Mac- 

 millan Company; London: Macmillan and Co., 

 Ltd., 1906.) Price 185. 6d. net. 

 (i) "T^HIS book is an English translation of the 

 i. second edition of the " Kurze Lehrbuch der 

 Elektrotechnik," and includes some additional 

 matter which will be introduced into the third edition. 

 It is intended to meet the needs of electrical engineer- 

 ing students who have passed the most elementary 

 stages and are taking a second- and third-year course 

 at the technical colleges. 



It is not easy to give a satisfactory definition of 

 electrical engineering, but in default of a better it 

 may be suggested that the subject should comprise 

 the generation, distribution and utilisation of electric 

 energy. This may be interpreted narrowly or broadly 

 according to the judgment of the individual. If this 

 be accepted as a reasonable definition, the book before 

 us is by no means comprehensive enough to be justly 

 called "a text-book of electrical engineering"; it 

 should rather be called "an introduction to the theory 

 of dynamo design." Distribution of electric energy 

 is not considered at all, and its utilisation only in so 

 far as the theories of motors, direct and alternating 

 current, are concerned. The theories of direct-current 

 feeders, of switchgear for controlling generators and 

 motors, of electric traction apparatus, are not abstruse, 

 and a knowledge of these matters is likely to be more 

 useful to the average engineer than the theory of 

 dynamo machinery. 



Recognising, however, the limitations of the sub- 

 ject-matter, the book may be safely recommended for 

 what it contains, although it is surprising that there 

 should have been much diflSculty in finding books 

 already in existence covering the same range, as 

 stated in the preface. As a brief indication of the 



