REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 



MANX BIRDS. 



Mr. Ralfe's monograph on the avi-fauna of the Isle of Man, 

 which has been anxiously awaited by British ornitholog-ists, has 

 made its appearance, and is in every way a credit to the author, 

 publisher, and the little island with which the work deals. We 

 have had many new books on birds through our hands recently, 

 a g"ood proportion of which were worthless, or nearly so, whilst 

 others were of some value from the beauty of the illustrations, 

 or some similar feature. The present work, however, may un- 

 hesitating-ly be placed upon the shelves of all .bird lovers and 

 naturalists as a sound, reliable, and interesting- work of consider- 

 able scientific value. For years the author has been carefully 

 collecting' information relative to the birds of the island. He 

 has the advantage of the help of Mr. P. M. C. Kermode, whilst 

 the boundaries of the island, and its position in the middle of 

 the Irish Sea, almost equi-distant from England, Scotland, 

 Ireland, and Wales, g^ive the author an exceptional opportunity 

 of describing the birds of his particular area, an opportunity of 

 which he has taken full advantage. The wonder is that such a 

 work on this subject was not issued long ago. 



Mr. Ralfe, who is a contributor to this journal, describes in 

 his work a total of 183 species. Of these, 75 are resident 

 (breeding) ; 18 reg'ular summer migrants (breeding), 45 regular 

 autumn, winter, or spring migrants (not breeding), and 45 

 occasional. An interesting comparison is made between these 

 birds and the birds of the mainland of the adjacent countries. 

 A lucid description is also given of the physical features of the 

 island, and this section of the work is illustrated by a charming 

 series of plates. There are also a number of plates (from 

 photographs) of favourite nesting places. We observe with 

 pleasure that the nesting places of some of the rarer birds 



are described as 'At . ' Manx names, folk-lore, &c., are 



not neglected. In fact, we fail to see how Mr. Ralfe could have 

 advantageously added anything to his volume. By the courtesy 

 of the publishers, we are able to give our readers an idea of the 

 illustrations in this work. Plate VII. shows nests of Herring 

 Gulls on the Calf, and Plate VIII. gives views of nesting place 



* The Birds of the Isle of iM:in, by P. G. Ralte. Edinburg-h, D.ivid 

 DoiiiJlus, pp. IV.-321., maps and plates x, 18/- net. 



Naturalist. 



