NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 397 



The plates, as we have said, are not satisfactory ; the index 

 to them is even less so. Plate III., fig. 6, appears to represent 

 a Shearwater which is very common in the Southern Ocean. In 

 the list of plates it is called the Black-eyebrowed Albatross. On 

 page 4 we are told that this is the English name of Diomedia 

 melanophrys, which is stated to be figured on Plate II., fig. 6. As 

 there is no fig. 6 on Plate II., we may take it for granted that the 

 II. is a misprint for III. This misprint is repeated on page 95, 

 while the bird figured is certainly not the Black-browed 

 Albatross. 



The Petrels, like most birds which are able to swim, have 

 remarkably " flufi'y " plumage. All the feathers appear to be 

 covered with fine down, so that they lie one over the other 

 without absolutely touching. This arrangement gives to their 

 plumage a softness — a tone (to use a familiar artistic term) which 

 is exquisitely beautiful, and which is perhaps best expressed by 

 the word velvety. A Storm Petrel is one of the most beautiful 

 objects in nature. Every feather lies in its place ; the gradation 

 of light and shade is a study for an artist. The subtlety of these 

 gradations is marvellous, the depth of tone unrivalled, the general 

 effect almost sublime in its beauty, its delicacy, its perfect loveli- 

 ness ; and when the bird is alive, in the wonderful curve of its 

 outline. But instead of a good figure we find on Plate IV. a 

 wretched caricature : in his search for the picturesque, or rather 

 the grotesque, the artist has libelled the poor Storm Petrel. 



Report on the Migration of Birds in the Spring and Autumn oj 

 1886. By a Committee of the British Association, consisting 

 of Mr. John Cordeaux (Secretary), Professor Newton, 

 Messrs. Harvie Brown, Eagle Clarke, E. M. Barrington, 

 and A. G. More. 8vo, pp. 174. Macfarlane & Erskiue, 

 19, St. James Squai-e, Edinburgh. 1887. 



This is the Eighth Annual Keport of the Committee appointed 

 by the British Association for the purpose of obtaining observa- 

 tions on the migration of birds at lighthouses and light-vessels, 

 and reporting the same. It includes observations from 126 stations 

 out of a total of 198 supplied with schedules, letters of instruction, 

 and cloth-lined envelopes for wings. In the previous Report 



