356 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



The Grouse in Health and in Disease ; being the Final Report of 

 the Committee of Inquiry on Grouse Disease. Two vols. 

 Smith, Elder & Co. 



These two quarto volumes constitute the most exhaustive 

 monograph on the Grouse that has yet appeared, and one that 

 is a model for future investigators to follow ; the contributors 

 are accepted authorities, and the illustrations are a no incon- 

 siderable feature in a well-designed publication. 



The work commences with " The Systematic Position of the 

 Grouse," by A. H. Evans, followed by a very lull life-history of 

 the bird, by A. S. Leslie, which will be read with interest by 

 both the sportsman and the ornithologist. "The Changes of 

 Plumage in the Eed Grouse in Health and in Disease," by Edward 

 A. Wilson, deals with some controverted points on the subject, 

 and is fully and excellently illustrated ; it is a subject requiring 

 ample treatment, and has received it. The food of the bird is de- 

 scribed by Messrs. Wilson, Leslie, and Grimshaw, and its causes 

 of mortality are shown to be numerous, but its powers of survival 

 very considerable. Birds which had lost a wing, ** cut off clean 

 at the shoulder," have not only survived, but succeeded in 

 subsequently rearing a healthy brood. Barbed wire is un- 

 doubtedly a danger ; in South Africa we have even seen a locust 

 in flight impale itself. But Grouse disease in its "epidemic" 

 or " epizootic " form is the real subject of investigation, and 

 one that principally concerned the inquiry of the Committee. 

 It has been dealt with as exhaustively as possible. The names 

 of Drs. Shipley, Fantham, Leiper, Seligmann, Cobbett, Sambon, 

 Hammond Smith, and others are sufficient to prove the value 

 of this, the chief work of the research. As Lord Lovat subse- 

 quently remarks : — " After examining nearly two thousand cases 

 of death from other than natural causes, and the facts and 

 surrounding circumstances of over two hundred separate out- 

 breaks of disease, the Committee have arrived at the conclusion 



