176 



NATURE 



[August 11, 1910 



• During the last half-century farming has greatly 

 improved . . . old hedgerows have been grubbed up 

 and replaced, and waste lands and mosses have been 

 reclaimed and cultivated ; changes no doubt advan- 

 tageous to the common weal, but deplorable when 

 viewed from the standpoint of the naturalist." 



That is, the increase of population and the move- 

 ment and disturbance of nature due thereto, and the 

 incessant hustling by civilisation, are in Cheshire, as 

 everywhere else, tending to " move on " every form 

 of life. 



.Although the cover bears the title of " Fauna of 

 Cheshire," these volumes deal only with the vertebrates 

 of the county. The editor, Mr. Coward, and his co- 

 contributor-in-chief, Mr. Oldham, are responsible for 

 the greater part of the fauna. Both are well known 

 for the attention they have long devoted to the natural 

 history of Cheshire, and theirs are, consequently, the 

 right and proper names to appear on the tille-page. 



first. The map, which, under the present arrange- 

 ment of the book, is relegated to the second volume, 

 where it is very inconvenient, would have then been 

 found in the volume the contents of which necessitate 

 its more frequent consultation. The portrait of J. 

 Fell, Esq., the estimable former chairman of the 

 Lancashire .Sea Fisheries, seems dragged into a work 

 dealing exclusively with Cheshire, especially as he 

 ceased to occupy that position in 1894, and his name 

 does not, apparently, occur in the book. 



Following a short introduction, in which the extinct 

 and fossil species of the county are enumerated, full 

 descriptive notices are given of each of the forty-six 

 mammals which "occur or have occurred within recent 

 years in Cheshire and its territorial waters." We 

 read that the Scotch white hare which was introduced 

 into Yorkshire has spread largely into Cheshire, and 

 it will be interesting to watch how the rodent will be 

 affected bv this change to a locality where the warmer 



irford Caltle. Fn 



' T he Vertebrate Fauna of Chestiire and I.iverpool Bay." Edited by T. \. Coward. 



The work seems to us, however, to go considerably 

 beyond the legitimate limits of the county in including 

 in it the marine fishes within a line " from the Great 

 Orme's Head in Carnarvonshire to Formby Point in 

 Lancashire." We believe that the editor would have 

 been well advised if he had restricted his observations 

 to the land, fresh-water, and ostuarine life, and 

 thus rendered a second volume unnecessary', which 

 would have been a great advantage in many ways. 

 By omitting such quite unnecessary matter as the 

 Wild Birds' Protection Act, set out verbatim at the 

 e.xpense of more than six pages ; by judiciously squeez- 

 ing the migration section ; circumspectly condensing 

 the interesting yet somewhat disproportionately long 

 account of Dee as a wildfowl resort, and excising the 

 repetitions in the bibliography, room could have been 

 made for the contents of the second volume within the 



NO. 2128, VOL. 84] 



climate disperses the snow before the time for chang- 

 ing its protective winter-coat arrives. An interesting 

 resume, chietlv from the British .\ssociation report 

 on the subject in 18S7, is given of the herd of white 

 cattle at Somerford Park, where it has existed for two 

 centuries, and still consists of twenty-five head, and 

 that now e.xtinct at Lyme Park. As to the birds, the 

 authors admit the title to a place on the list "during 

 the present and last centuries" of 231 species, of 

 which 112 breed, or "bred till recently," in the 

 county, and among which the nightingale is included, 

 "as there is no doubt that the bird has bred on some, 

 at any rate, of the occasions when it has been 

 observed " ; but, as neither eggs nor nestlings have 

 been seen, we may be permitted to continue to 

 doubt the accuracy of the statement until belter 

 evidence be forthcoming. With regard to the 



