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NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



A Vertebrate Fauna of Scotland : The Tweed Area, including the 

 Fame Islands. By A. H. Evans, M.A., F.Z.S. Edin- 

 burgh : David Douglas. 



This forms the eleventh volume of what may well be called 

 Harvie-Brown's History of the Vertebrate Fauna of Scotland. 

 It is written by Mr. A. H. Evans, the well-known ornithologist 

 and author of the volume on Birds in the " Cambridge Natural 

 History." The Tweed area, as treated in this volume, " is 

 almost co-extensive with the shires of Berwick, Roxburgh, Sel- 

 kirk, and Peebles, while it penetrates East Lothian and Mid- 

 lothian to a very small extent, and includes a considerably 

 greater portion of Northumberland." The Mammals, Birds, and 

 Eeptilia are described ; the ichthyology of the district is so 

 closely connected with that of the " Forth " area that it has 

 been decided to leave the Fishes to be treated in a forthcoming 

 volume on the latter from the pen of Mr. William Evans. 



The introduction contains some most interesting and useful 

 biographical details of well-known Border naturalists, most of 

 whose names are now well known to all of us over a far wider 

 area. The work itself is a record of both personal observation 

 and wide, and, what is more, judicious compilation. To read, 

 to assimilate, and to sift the more and more prolific records 

 found under the titles of an ever-increasing bibliography requires, 

 especially in the ornithological writer, many of the qualifica- 

 tions of the accomplished historian. By mistaken observations, 

 honestly recorded, much heresy has crept within the lists of our 

 British faunal districts, and the conscientious naturalist who 

 undertakes a work of this dimension must needs walk warily. 

 The names of both Editor and Author of this volume are 

 sufficient to satisfy the most exacting that all that knowledge 

 and caution can do has been done. This volume is not of the 

 nature of a Border foray, but exhibits a more steady and com- 

 plete conquest of the vertebrate fauna of the Tweed area. 



