VOL. VII.] REYIEWS. 209 



deposit, the ground-colour is plainly apparent externally, 

 and its presence is not due to the action of light in any way. 

 Calcium carbonate is rather more than a " valuable ingredient " 

 in the formation of an egg-shell, and would be more aptly 

 described as " the main ingredient " of both egg-shells and 

 fish bones. A Ust is given on p. 357 of the principal figures 

 pubhshed of Gannet's eggs. The best I have seen is that 

 by Mr. H. Gronvold {The British Bird Booh, IV., Egg plate v., 

 fig. 3), but this is not mentioned in Mr. Gurney's list. It is 

 one of the most curious and significant facts in the history 

 of this species, that though Gesner in 1555 recorded the 

 fact that the Gannet incubates its egg by covering it with 

 its webbed feet, yet Howard Saunders, writing as late as 

 1884, spoke of the bird's " supposed habit of hatching its 

 egg with its foot ! " 



Reference has recently been made in this journal [antea, 

 p. 99) to the long incubation period of this species, and 

 interesting details as to the treatment of the young are 

 given by Mr. Gurney, but the remarkable greeting formalities 

 are somewhat briefly dismissed, and we are told nothing of 

 the courtship display, a subject on which information seems 

 to be almost entirely lacking. The fist of inland occurrences 

 in Great Britain (p. 443) might be considerably extended. 

 Thus for Berkshire two are here recorded on Mr. Clark 

 Kennedy's authority, but six are now known to have been 

 actually obtained : for Notts Mr. Whitaker has noted over 

 a dozen occurrences instead of nine, and Derbyshire (six 

 obtained and others seen), Staffordshire (3 at least), Warwick 

 (4), Herts (3), Bucks (2) and several other inland counties 

 might have been added to the fist. Similarly the fists of 

 Continental occurrences, which are admittedly not exhaustive, 

 are rather deceptive. On p. 36 three occurrences in Italy 

 are mentioned, but in the last list of Count Arrigoni degfi 

 Oddi, eighteen are recorded from Italy alone, as well as 

 others from Sicily and Sardinia. 



Some notes on the anatomy and osteology of this species 

 are given in the last chapters of the work, and in appendices 

 there are interesting notes on the other species of the Genus 

 8ula, the parasites which have been found infesting them, 

 and on historic and prehistoric remains. 



A somewhat formidable fist of notanda and corrigenda 

 occupies pp. xlvii.-fi., and might have been still further 

 extended. This is partly due to the difficulty of avoiding 

 errors in quotations from obscure Danish and Early English 

 sources. For example the reference, to Winge's paper, 

 " Om jordfundne Fugle fra Danmark," on p. 559 contains 



