August 6, 1908J 



NA TURE 



321 



BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES OF NORTH 

 WALES.' 



Dl-'SPITE its unrivalled scenic attractions and its 

 popularity as a health resort, North Wales has 

 until recently received scant attention from zoologists, 

 references to the district in standard works on Britisli 

 vertebrates being comparatively few, and often 

 erroneous. The need of a comprehensive local fauna 

 dealing- with the district has long been felt. But it 

 was recognised that there was no one man who was 

 able to do the work. It could only be accomplished 

 by the cooperation of a large number of naturalists 

 resident in Wales and non-resident. For although 

 comparatively little has been written about the verte- 

 brate fauna of North Wales (and a good deal of that 

 little quite recently), a good many observers, both 

 residents and visitors, have been working steadily 

 at it for some years. It remained to collect, sift, and 

 arrange the facts they had got together. Mr. Forrest 

 came forward and 

 undertook this ar- 

 duous work, and 

 he obtained the 

 practical assist- 

 ance of a number 

 of naturalists (.'i 

 list of whom ap- 

 pears in the book), 

 w-ho readily placed 

 their stores of in- 

 formation at his 

 disposal. He has 

 also examinea 

 what little litera- 

 ture (dating some 

 way back) there 

 was on the sub- 

 ject. This i n- 

 formation he was 

 able to supplr- 

 ment from hi^ 

 own observations, 

 made during many 

 sliort visits to the 

 Principality. The 

 result has been an 

 excellent h a n d- 

 book to the verte- 

 brate fauna of 

 North Wales. 



The introduc- 

 tion comprises 

 some account of 

 the former zoolo- 

 gists of North Wales, with portraits ; a biblio- 

 graphy ; a short account of the physical features 

 of the country; some account of bird migration, 

 wherein the routes are carefully traced, not an easy 

 matter in a mountainous country; and a note on the 

 Welsh names. Two conclusions reluctantly force 

 themselves upon us after a perusal of this work. One 

 is that North Wales is not a natural faunal district. 

 West and east differ too greatly. Speaking of the 

 rugged mass of mountains which stretches almost 

 uninterruptedly from the Menai Straits to the Dovey 

 estuarv, the author himself says that the importance 

 of this mountain barrier in limiting the distribution 

 of species can hardly be over-estimated. In a very 

 large number of instances, species are confined to the 

 eastern side of this barrier. The truth of this is 

 particularly evident in regard to many woodland 



1 "The Vertebrate Fauna of N rth Wale^." Rv H. E. Forrest. Pp. 

 lxxiv+5^7; with 28 plates and a map. (London : Witherby and Co., 1957-) 

 Price 17^. 6ti. net. 



birds and fresh-water fishes. The second conclusion 

 is that the vertebrate fauna of a district like this 

 (which, although its actual area is small, is so diver- 

 sified in its physical aspect) is too big a subject for 

 one octavo volume, bulky almost to clumsiness as 

 this volume is. 



The work shows signs of being cramped, and there 

 is evidence that the vast amount of information at 

 the author's disposal has been unduly condensed, and 

 that the material has lost in the process. This is not 

 of too great importance, or wholly a drawback. For 

 it is distinctly an advantage to have a fauna contain- 

 ing all the main facts in one volume, and, despite its 

 fatness, we may call it a handbook to the vertebrate 

 fauna of North Wales, if it is not a history of >t; 

 and the way is still left open to anyone who may be 

 able and willing to write a " Birds " of any of the 

 North Welsh counties. How fascinating such a book, 

 dealing fully with the bird-life, would be only those 



/•/;„/,ij 



PufTms on St. Tndwal's. From " The Vertebrate F.iuna of North Wales." 



[N. E. Forrest. 



NO. 2023, VOL. 78] 



who know Wales in the spring and early summer can 

 tell. But even in the present work we sliould have 

 been glad of more details. The life-histories as 

 observed in North Wales could have been fuller with 

 advantage. We do not notice that the habit of the 

 merlin of breeding on the sea coast in other districts 

 besides Anglesey is alluded to, or the fact of the over- 

 flowf population of great jackdaw haunts nesting in 

 crowds in rabbit burrows on a hillside; and many 

 other points might have been touched upon. More 

 exact details of the locaX nests of the buzzard built in 

 trees would have been welcome. Nor is the distribu- 

 tion of birds in the breeding season so exact and full 

 (safeguarding rare birds being understood) as might 

 be. More details of the position of breeding stations 

 of rock birds might have been given ; and in the 

 introduction a few pages might well have been 

 devoted to a description of some of the more notable 

 sea-bird stations. 



This fauna is to a great extent pioneer work, and 



