Reviews.



269



It is doubtful whether any animal is so destructive to wild bird-life as

the domestic cat that has run wild. I11 Australia and New Zealand these

creatures have been rather encouraged than otherwi.se in order that they

may act as a check upon the rabbits, but the harm they have done by des¬

troying native birds is simply enormous. In the current number of the

Emu a paper on this subject by Mr. A. J. Campbell appears, in which the

author says “ These injurious animals are now practically all over Australia.

You find them on the shores prowling about sea-bird rookeries, and in the

far interior thriving in rabbit burrows. They are even to be found numerous

upon the islands off the coast. After several generations in the bush-wilds

these animals attain an immense size, and become so fierce that they have

been known to attack human beings. Now, such great beasts need a

quantity of food, and of what does that food consist ? Why, of course,

native birds and animals.”



REVIEWS.


BOMBAY DUCKS. *


Although systematic aviculture—other than the widely-

spread keeping of pet birds by the natives—exists hardly at all

in India, yet everyone there is compelled to be an aviculturist in

spite of himself, for the Crows, Kites, and Sparrows see that he

feeds and houses them to a greater or less extent. The interest¬

ing, if somewhat annoying, ways of all these are most ably and

amusingly discussed in Mr. Dewar’s book, for “ Bombay Ducks ”

does not signify the anatine waterfowl of that part of India, but

is an adaptation of an old slang term for the Anglo-Indian

residents there, applied to the animal population by our author.

Not that the essays are exclusively concerned with Bombay

animals, for they mainly relate to widety distributed forms.

Many of the birds dealt with are known to aviculturists here,

some quite familiarly, as the common Ring-Parrakeet, and some

as rare acquisitions, like the Indian Roller. It is always in¬

teresting to read about the customs of such birds at large, and

from personal acquaintance with most of Mr. Dewar’s subjects I

can testify to the correctness of his observations, while any

reader will be struck by his extremely scientific and reflective



* Bombay Ducks, or Birds and Beasts found in a Naturalist's Eldorado. By DOUGLAS

Dewar, I.C.S., F.Z.S. John Lane, the Bodley Head, London. 1906.



