Reviews and Book A^otices. 353 



Barnsley. Mr. Armitag'e and I have handled four specimens 

 only as yet, all taken in Stainbrough district.* 



I have seen this bat on the wing" a few times, but it 

 could never be distinguished with absolute certainty from the 

 Noctule when both were flyings tog"ether. It flies a little more 

 slowly than the Noctule, and in a slig-htly more fluttering and 

 less powerful style, is a trifle smaller, and frequents the vicinity 

 of trees more, not flying- amongst them, but up and down some 

 open place in their immediate vicinity, and usually at about the 

 altitude of the tree tops. 



{To be continued.) 

 ♦♦ 



III the Yearbook and Calendar of the Essex Field Club for 1906 and 1907, 

 are some excellent Illustrations of the Essex Musuem of Natural History and 

 the Epping F"orest Museum, and a portrait of Prof. L. Meldola, F. R.S., 

 forms the frontispiece. 



Mr. John Murray has issued an Jidmirable quarterly review, * Science 

 Progress' (5/-), which it is hoped may continue. Part I. is before us, and 

 contains twelve articles on various subjects, amongst which the following 

 are selected haphazard :—' Chloroform, a Poison,' by Dr. B. J. Colling-- 

 wood ; ' Physical Geography as an Educational Subject,' by Dr. J. E. Marr ; 

 ' The Solvent Action of Roots upon the Soil Particles,' by A. E. Hall ; 

 ' Some Notable Instances of the Distribution of Injurious Insects by Artificial 

 Means,' by F. V. Theobald. Some of the articles are illustrated. Being- 

 printed on stout paper, the review has a substantial appearance. The 

 editors are Dr. N. H. Alcock and Mr. W. G. Freeman. 



The Birds of the British Islands. By Charles Stonham, C.M.Q., 

 F.R.C.S., F.Z.S., with illustrations by L. M. Medland. Part I. London, 

 E. Grant Richards. 1906. 



The preliminary flourish of trumpets which heralded the appearance of 

 the first part of this book doubtless induced many to expect great things ; 

 something fresh and original in the treatment of the well-worn subject of 

 British Birds ; new facts based on careful first-hand observation. And it is 

 possible that those who have no knowledge of the subject may take this first 

 instalment as representing all that has been claimed for it, ridiculous though 

 these claims have been. Those, however, who have at least a working 

 acquaintance with this theme, will not be surprised to find that the author, 

 hitherto unknown as an ornithologist, has vastly overestimated the import- 

 ance of his proposed undertaking, which is at most but a compilation, and 

 bad at that. It is long since, indeed, that we have come across a book 

 which affected so much and performed so little. In the paucity of its 

 information it is pitiful ; as a work of reference it is useless ; while as to its 

 illustrations, they are contemptible. Apparently drawn from very badly 

 stuffed specimens, they offend the eye from an artistic point of view, while 

 their shortcomings in the matter of accuracy as to the plumage have rarely 

 been outnumbered. It causes us no astonishment to find that the author 

 should feel able to eulogise these caricatures, when we turn to the text to 

 discover him to be so little of a zoologist, that he is unable to detect the 

 absurdity of such statements as that the food of the Wheatear, for example, 

 ' consists of insects, worms, gnats, and flies ! ' Throughout this part, 

 indeed, he constantly speaks of 'flies and insects.' To be brief, we fail to 

 find any sort of justification for the publication of this book, which has not 

 even the merit of cheapness to recommend it. — W. P. Pycraft. 



* Since writing the above I have taken six more specimens of P. leisleri 

 at Monk Bretton, a place distant some four miles from Stainbro'. 



1906 October i. 



