394 Reviews and Book Notices. 
expense of the brown spots; and in the leaden forms the 
cloudy blotches disappear, while the brown spots remain com- 
plete and well defined. Probably the banded forms may be 
only heavily marked examples of the ordinary type, and without 
direct relation to either of the suffused varieties, but an opinion 
in this case is scarcely warranted when the real causes of these 
extreme variations are so little understood. 
There are three specimens in the series which deserve 
special mention and a separate description. The first has the 
right forewing a dirty brown colour, all over the wing, the 
markings and the white ground being all obliterated; all the 
other wings, however, are of the usual typical colour in every 
respect, a strange looking specimen indeed. 
The second is a really pretty aberration, the basal two-thirds 
of the wings being of a deep bronze colour flushed with blue, 
and divided in the centre by a narrow white band reaching from 
the inner margin almost to the costal margin, the outer portion 
of the wings being a broad belt of pure white. The extra- 
ordinary appearance of this specimen was noticed when I was 
ten yards away from it, although it was surrounded by scores 
of others of its species. 
The third has all the wings a pale lead colour, but instead 
of the six brown spots being complete and well defined, as in 
the other leaden forms, they are replaced by round leaden spots 
similar to the ground colour, surrounded with brown lines, the 
wings being simply ornated with brown rings. It is worthy of 
note that the head, thorax, and body are all normally coloured 
in all the varieties except the lead coloured forms, in all of 
which they are invariably black. 
—_~e— 
Wild Life on a Norfolk Estuary, by A. H. Patterson. London: 
Methuen & Co. 352 pp., 10/6 net. We have previously noticed Mr. 
Patterson’s work in these columns. The present substantial book teems 
with equally interesting matter, and can be recommended for its racy style 
and for the valuable natural history observations it records. It deals largely 
with Breydon—so well known to East Coast naturalists. The second part 
of the present volume is really a continuation of the author's ‘ Nature in East 
Norfolk.’ There is also added a series of interesting local notes, which owe 
their existence to the author's system of ‘when found make a note of.’ 
Some of these are exceptionally good-—the ‘rabbit yarn’ we should have 
reprinted for the benefit of our readers had it not been quite so long! 
Throughout the work there are numerous ancedotes of mammal, bird, and 
fish. To one of them, however, we observe the footnote, ‘This is a fact’! 
The book is illustrated by several of the author’s own sketches, some of 
which are rather crude, and a reason for their insertion is given in the 
Preface. Altogether it is a most entertaining volume, and we only wish 
that the dozens of recent writers on birds had as much first-hand inform- 
ation to give as Mr. A. H. Patterson, and could put it in such a pleasant 
form. 
~ Naturalist, 
