NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 465 
and others, has culminated in the production of a work which, 
for accuracy and fulness of information, aided by excellent 
illustrations and maps, places it in front of all the books (and 
they are many and various) which have been written on the 
Western Isles. It would, indeed, have been well if our authors 
had given a bibliography of these works, for it would be curious 
to trace the growth of information concerning a portion of the 
British Islands which to very many Englishmen is less known 
than New York. 
The introductory chapters deal with the geographical position 
and physical features of the Outer Hebrides, each island being 
described in turn; and, following some remarks on the faunal 
position and importance of the group, we have chapters on the 
Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians, and Fishes (by Mr. W. 
Anderson Smith), succeeded by remarks on the general geological 
features by Professor Heddle. 
Although we do not doubt that our authors are well acquainted 
with all the accessible literature relating to this group of islands, 
we think they might very well have quoted some of the remarks 
of their predecessors concerning certain animals about which 
they themselves give no information. To take the Roe-deer, for 
example, of which we learn nothing but the Gaelic names (p. 84), 
we are told in an explanatory note (p. 12), that species which 
‘have not any notes attached to them are entered merely for 
purposes of comparison and future additions, and have nothing 
directly to do with the present state of the fauna of the Outer 
Hebridean Area.”’ From this we are to infer that the Roe-deer 
is not now to be found in the Islands. Yet Dr. Johnson, in his 
‘Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland,” 1775, observed 
(p. 121), “‘the Isle of Skye has stags and roe-bucks, but no 
hares.” If there are no longer Roe-deer in Skye, it would have 
been well to note this. Similarly, under the head of Weasel 
(p. 18), we find nothing but the Gaelic name for this animal, 
while Dr. Johnson has the interesting note (p. 189) that, although 
“there are in Skye neither rats nor mice, the weasel is so 
frequent that he is heard in houses rattling behind chests or 
beds, as in England,” to which he adds “ that they probably owe 
to his predominance that they have no other vermin; for since 
the great rat took possession of this part of the world scarce a 
ship can touch at any port but some of his race are left behind. 
