REVO^ 



Aberdeen University Bird-migration Inquiry : First Interim 

 Report (1909-12). By A. Landsborough Thomson, M.A., 

 M.B.O.U. (Reprinted from the Scottish Naturalist, 

 July, October, November, 1912 ; February, April and 

 June, 1913.) 



These papers give details of the " recoveries " or " reappear- 

 ances " of birds ringed under the auspices of the Aberdeen 

 University. Mr. Thomson prefaces these details with a few 

 remarks on the methods used. The Report contains full 

 details of over three hundred recoveries, some of great interest, 

 and many which will in time, when collated with other records, 

 be of great use. In this connexion we are very glad to see 

 that " no attempt, at this early stage of the work, at drawing 

 conclusions from the facts collected " has been made, and this 

 decision, we think, is a wise one. Among the more interesting 

 cases we may mention the following : A Guillemot ringed in 

 June in Aberdeenshire and recovered in November of the same 

 year near Gothenburg, Sweden ; a number of Lapwings ringed 

 in summer in eastern Scotland recovered in the folloA^ing 

 autumn and winter in Ireland and Portugal ; a Woodcock 

 bred in Aberdeenshire and recovered in winter in Asturias, 

 Spain ; a Meadow-Pipit caught and ringed in Warwickshire in 

 September and shot in Portugal in December. 



We have one criticism to make, which is that it seems a 

 great pity to burden the Report with the publication of a 

 number of quite useless cases. There are nearly 150 records 

 relating to birds which have been recovered at the same jDlace 

 within a few days or a week or two of their having been ringed. 

 Careful note of such records should be kept no doubt, but to 

 publish the details is only wearisome, and, moreover, con- 

 fusing, in that the really useful records are hidden in a mass 

 of useless ones. H.F.W. 



The Food of some British Wild Birds : A Study in Economic 

 Ornithology. By Walter E. Collinge, M.Sc, F.L.S., 

 F.E.S. London, Dulau. 4s. net. 



This little book is the result of a number of field-observations, 

 and the examination of the stomach-contents of some 3,500 

 birds of various species. Mr. Collinge gives a brief account of 

 his methods and the economic importance of birds, some 

 interesting details as to the distribution of weed-seeds by 



