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 NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



Ocean Birds. By J. F. Green. With a Preface by A. Q. 

 GuiLLEMARD, and a Treatise on skinning Birds by F. H. 

 GuiLLEMARD, M.D. 4to, 120 pp.; 6 Coloured Plates. 

 London: K. H. Porter. 1887. 



A good work on ' Ocean Birds' is a desideratum. A charming 

 volume might be written on the species to be observed in a 

 voyage round the world. Starting from New York a traveller 

 could scarcely fail to see a few coast birds before the ship was 

 out of sight of land— Gulls, Terns, or Skuas, and, if the breeding 

 season was over, probably a few Gannets, Razorbills, Guillemots, 

 or Cormorants. A brief account of the species which occur on 

 these coasts, and a few hints respecting the peculiarities of each 

 species, especially those that would enable the voijageur to 

 recognise them on the wing, would be profoundly interesting. 

 Once out at sea the species to be observed in the wide Atlantic 

 would be perhaps not more than three or four in number. The 

 most conspicuous of these would be the Fulmar, Fidmarus glaci- 

 alis ; the least conspicuous, Wilson's Petrel, Oceanites ivilsoni ; 

 and the rarest— though, in reality, by no means rare— the Great 

 Shearwater, Puffinus major. All these birds belong to the Procel- 

 larida, which are the only true Ocean Birds. On again sighting 

 land it would be most interesting to learn how to recognise 

 the channel coast-birds. Then, again, some information is still 

 desirable concerning the peculiarities of the coast-birds of the Bay 

 of Biscay. A chapter on the Petrels, Shearwaters, and Gulls of 

 Madeira, the Canaries, and Cape Verd, might clear up many a 

 dif&culty. By some extraordinary oversight, the most conspicuous 

 bird of this part of the ocean, the Yellow-legged or Mediterranean 

 Herring Gull, Larus cachinnans, is not mentioned by Mr. Green. 

 When the last individual of this species has been left behind, and 

 the line has been crossed, flocks of Sooty Terns, Sterna fidiginosa, 

 are almost sure to be observed for a couple of days. Then 

 perhaps for a week very few birds are seen, except a solitary 

 Storm Petrel, or a pair of Shearwaters now and then, until the 

 Cape is neared, when sea-birds again become numerous. What 

 are the little white birds that fly about in large flocks in these 

 latitudes ? The sailors call them " Whale-birds." Are they the 



