538 



NATURE 



[October i, 1908 



In a few cases there are slips which can hardly be 

 assigned to the printer, e.§,. in the analysis of art. 

 520, but few such have been noticed. In conclusion, 

 it may be said that in the opinion of the present 

 writer the type of reader for whom the book is best 

 adapted is the student preparing for a mathematical 

 examination, such as the Cambridge Tripos, in which 

 theory plays the principal part. It should also, how- 

 ever, prove a good book of reference to the phvsicist 

 of superior mathematical attainments. For either of 

 these types of readers it seems likelv to be a reallv 

 useful book, so far as its scope extends. 



C. CllREE. 



PETRELS. 

 A Monograph of the Petrels (order Tiihinares). 

 Parts i., ii. and iii. By Dr. F. Du Cane Godman, 

 F.R.S. With hand-coloured plates. (London : 

 Witherby and Co., 1908.) Price 2/. 5.S. per part. 

 AA/'^ welcome another instalment of the finely illus- 

 » V trated " monographs " in which ornithologists 

 are gradually, if slowly, writing the history of the 

 birds of the world. The latest of these monographs to 

 be launched is founded on the synopsis of the order 

 Tubinares, published by the late Mr. Salvin in the 

 twenty-fifth volume of the " Catalogue of the Birds in 

 the British Museum." It was Mr. Salvin's intention 

 on the completion of that work to have issued a series 

 of coloured illustrations representing all the species of 

 ■petrels, shearwaters, fulmars, diving petrels, and alba- 

 trosses, which constitute the order Tubinares, and at 

 the time of his death in 1S97 many of the plates had 

 been prepared. The present author has had the series 

 of coloured plates completed, and he is now issuing 

 them in the form of a monograph, adding such 

 •synonymy and accounts of the geographical distribu- 

 tion and habits of the species as Mr. Salvin origin- 

 ally intended, and bringing the work up to date. 



Since the twenty-fifth volume of the British Museum 

 Catalogue was issued in 1896, considerable additions 

 to our knowledge of the Tubinares have been made. 

 Some remarkable discoveries have been made by 

 American ornithologists in the seas of California and 

 the islands which lie off the south-western coast of 

 North America, and Sir Walter Buller's supplement to 

 the " Birds of New Zealand " has added to our know- 

 ledge of the group. Moreover, from the observaticAis 

 made by the naturalists to several recent Antarctic 

 expeditions, we have learned a great deal about the 

 breeding habits of certain well-known species, which, 

 retiring to those inhospitable regions for the purpose 

 of reproduction, had up to then managed to keep us 

 very much in the dark as to the manner of their nest- 

 ing. The material thus examined has enabled the 

 author to undertake the revision of the Tubinares with 

 some confidence. The order as at present known em- 

 braces more than one hundred species. 



The first three parts of the work are now in our 

 hands, and fully carry out so far as they go the ob- 

 jects set forth in the author's note. The first part deals 

 with the smaller petrels of the following genera :^ 

 Procellaria, Halocyptena, Oceanodroma, Oceanites, 

 Gorrodia, Pelagodroma, Pealea, and Cyriodroma (in 

 NO. 2031, VOL. 78] 



part). First on the list comes our own familiar 

 stormy petrel — the petrel par excellence — of which a 

 very good and concise history is given, including 

 synonymy, geographical distribution, breeding, and 

 general life habits, and a full description of the 

 plumage of the adult and young ; and this is the 

 general plan of the work. 



Twenty-four species are treated of in sixty-eight 

 pages of letterpress, and there are twenty coloured 

 plates. Part ii. concludes Cvmodroma, and deals with 

 twenty-four species of the large genus Puffiniis, the 

 shearwaters, in sixty-four pages, with twenty coloured 

 plates. In this part may be noticed the great shear- 

 water, of which, though the bird was known to 

 Latham so long ago as 1785, and although it some- 

 times appears in large numbers off our own coasts, 

 the breeding place is still unknown. It can scarcely, 

 however, be doubted that this must be sought for in 

 southern latitudes, and in our winter. 



Part iii. concludes Puflinus, and treats of four 

 restricted genera and twenty-three species of the 

 extensive genus Qistrelata. Among the former we 

 find the silvery-grey fulmar of the southern oceans, 

 which in general appearance so much resembles the 

 fulmar of the north that Latham and (imelin 

 described it as a variety of that species. Also the 

 great dark-coloured petrel familiarly known to sailors 

 as the Cape Hen. The casual occurrences of 

 Qistrelata haesitata, CE. brevipes, and Qi. neglecta 

 in the British Islands are wonderful instances of the 

 wandering habits of these small fulmars. The 

 accounts given of the breeding and general life habits 

 of these ocean wanderers, the gliding flight of which 

 has so often beguiled the monotonous hours of the 

 passengers on liners, are very interesting; and those 

 who often have occasion to go on long voyages (in 

 the southern seas especially), and take an interest 

 in the birds they see, would do well to study the 

 plates, at all events, in this fine work, and so have a 

 chance of learning (roughly speaking) the names of 

 the petrels which may on some days be seen from 

 the deck in great numbers. But specimens of these 

 birds are very rarely secured, and no opportunity 

 should be lost of preserving any that by a lucky 

 chance should come into the traveller's hands ; for 

 some species are known from single specimens only, 

 and others from but little more. 



The work will be completed in five quarterly parts. 

 It is beautifully printed on rag paper, and we need 

 only say of the plates that they are by Mr. Keule- 

 mans, and drawn and coloured under the most careful 

 supervision. This means that they are as near per- 

 fection .-is it is possible for ornithological plates to be. 



O. V. A. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Das W'eltgebiiiide, Eine genieinverstdiidliche, 



Himmelsl;unde. By M. Wilhelm Meyer. Zweite, 



umgearbeitete .Auflage. Pp. xii-l-69i. (Leipzig 



and X'ienna : Bibliographisches Institut, 1908.) 



Price 16 marks. 



Ten years ago we read the first edition of this work 



with considerable satisfaction, and the examination of 



the second edition has been interesting, since it shows 



