44Q 



NATURE 



[Marc A u, 1880 



superfluous nitrogen. On the other hand Broughton has 

 shown that the action of light leads to the degradation of 

 the Cinchona alkaloids in the bark into other compounds, 

 and the same fact has been pointed out with regard to 

 Strychnos. 



Its use in horticulture will in all probability be limited 

 to the gardens of the wealthy, where there will be no 

 difficulty in employing it to make plants grow at double 

 their normal speed if that is ever practically found worth 

 while. It may also perhaps be found available in accele- 

 rating and supplementing the effect of our tardy and 

 penurious sunlight in ripening fruit. But the scientific 

 interest of its present application must rest mainly on the 

 fact that the cycle of the transformation of energy engaged 

 in plant life is now complete, and that, starting from the 

 energy stored up in vegetable fuel, we can run through the 

 changes from heat to electricity, and thence to light, which 

 we now know we can store up in vegetable fuel again. 



MOORE'S ORNITHOLOGICAL TABLES 

 British Birds Systematically Arranged in Five Tables, 

 showing the Comparative Distribution and Periodical 

 Migrations, and giving an Outline of the Geographical 

 Range of 376 Species. By G. Peter Moore, F.L.S. 

 Captain R.S.L.M.,late 3rd Hussars. Imp. 4to. (London: 

 Van Voorst, 1879.) 



CAPT. MOORE'S object in publishing this work is 

 not very apparent, and he can hardly be said to 

 assign sufficient reasons for it when he states that he 

 submits it 



" To those persons, without the care or leisure to be- 

 come students in ornithology, to whom an easy method of 

 obtaining a general knowledge as to the comparative dis- 

 tribution of our birds may be an object of interest, and 

 who, when ' the time of the singing of birds is come, and 

 the voice of the turtle is heard in our land,' feel a desire 

 to know something of the nature of these welcome 

 visitants, and the periods of their arrival, and whither 

 they go when they leave us." 



At the same time we willingly bestow on his labours that 

 " friendly scrutiny " which he bespeaks for them, " should 

 they fall into the hands of practical ornithologists." 

 In the absence of any other motive we venture to 

 believe that Capt. Moore, being laudably bent upon improv- 

 ing his own knowledge of the geographical distribution 

 of the many kinds of birds which it pleases some people 

 to dub " British," has been at the great pains of drawing 

 up these tables for his private use, and then, conscious of 

 the enormous toil which it has cost him to obtain his 

 results, has felt desirous of offering them to the public in 

 the hope of saving others from the trouble of doing the 

 like labour over again. The question whether the results 

 reached are worth the trouble expended on them is one that 

 it would be ungenerous to discuss, for wc rather hold that 

 no honest labour is wasted, even if the benefit that 

 accrues from it be not immediately evident, and of honest 

 labour there is here enough. Besides, the study of 

 ornithology is in this country followed by so large a 

 number of persons, and by them in so many different 

 ways, that it is impossible for any critic of a work which 

 certainly strikes out a new line of treatment, if not of 

 investigation, to predict whether it may not find a con- 

 siderable body of admirers, or many at least whom it will 



profit. We think, indeed, that the latter is more than 

 probable, for we are sure that the amount of information 

 which our author's pages convey, and that in the most 

 concise form, is vastly greater than such as is possessed 

 by most of those who are justly considered British 

 ornithologists. It remains, of course, for them to use 

 it, but if they will not, the blame is not with Captain 

 Moore. He does his best to bring the water to the 

 horses, since it is not for him or any other author to 

 take the horses, or other less noble animals, to the 

 water ; and, if they will not drink it, it is their own fault, 

 for the water is drawn from good springs, and though 

 here and there it would have been the better for a little 

 more filtering, analysis shows that it is wholesome taken 

 altogether. 



The "Tables" are a marvellous example of the 

 printer's skill, and reflect the greatest credit on the well- 

 known establishment of Messrs. Taylor and Francis. 

 We have to raise but one objection to them, and that is 

 the occasional employment of what we may perhaps call 

 "florid gothic" type — or, if we might be excused a 

 Hibernicism, we should say of " black " letter which is not 

 black. We profess no acquaintance with the technicalities 

 and mysteries of the printer's art, but merely from the 

 general reader's point of view, a good strong "clarendon" 

 for attracting the eye is worth all the " gothic " founts that 

 were ever invented, save only those of the most antique 

 pattern,and in them, by the way, some of the letters areoften 

 with difficulty distinguished. Apart from this, the Tables 

 have evidently been drawn up with a wonderful amount of 

 patience. We have put them to a pretty severe trial, and 

 may congratulate Capt. Moore on coming out of it with 

 flying colours. To say that they do not in all cases 

 adequately express the part which any particular species 

 plays in our fauna is no real objection, for such must be 

 the inevitable consequence of the tabulation of facts so 

 multitudinous as those furnished by the biography of 

 birds. It is impossible by schedules alone, without the 

 addition of footnotes, apostilles, or some other contrivance 

 of the like kind, to convey by any means that simple 

 tabulation affords a correct notion of the peculiarities 

 of distribution of such species as Savi's Warbler or the 

 common Crossbill. These are undoubtedly extreme 

 instances, but there are many others only less impatient 

 of tabular treatment, and it must be remembered that we 

 now know, or ought to know-, enough of our birds to be 

 assured that each species has its own particular life- 

 history, which cannot possibly be served after a Pro- 

 crustean method without the risk — nay, certainty— of 

 undergoing some deformation. In a few instances Capt. 

 Moore seems to have gone astray, as in the case of the 

 Golden Plover, which is marked as being a regular but 

 rare summer-migrant in the Faeroes, Iceland, and Spits- 

 bergen, and occurring in North America from lat. 35 to 

 70 , though a note of doubt is appended to the last state- 

 ment. There seems to be [no evidence at all that the 

 true Charadrius pluvialis is ever found in North America, 

 and it certainly cannot be said to be rare in the Faeroes, 

 while its appearnce in Spitsbergen is anything but regu- 

 lar. So, too, with the Great Auk, we have the old story 

 repeated of its being an inhabitant of the " Polar 

 Regions," though that story has been refuted again and 

 again ; but we suppose that to the end of time the fable 



