NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 399 



We have no wish to puff this volume, but we would be glad 

 to think that an educational use should be made of it. Dr. 

 Caiman, having written his two books on the subject, must now 

 undertake the third — a complete history of the British Crustacea. 

 We have many books on British birds and insects ; the British 

 crustaceans await their more up-to-date description, especially 

 from their bionomical standpoint. 



The Life of the Common Gull ; told in Photographs. By 



C. RuBOW. Witherby & Co. 

 This is one of the well-illustrated booklets issued by Messrs. 

 Witherby & Co., and is translated from the Danish. We give 

 one extract as representative: — "A mysterious incident some- 

 times occurs at the breeding-place : a gull is sentenced to death 

 and executed by its comrades. What wrong has it done ? Who 

 prosecutes ? How is it sentenced ? Such a scene as the follow- 

 ing may be witnessed : — The weather is dead calm, and the sun 

 burns on the sand, the heavy heat has brought the colony to an 

 uncommon degree of silence, parents and youngsters are sitting 

 together half-sleeping. Suddenly fifty to one hundred gulls fly 

 up in the air and collect together. Then one swoops down on to 

 one of the gulls sitting on the sand, and strikes him hard in the 

 back of the neck. A second, a third, and many more, one after 

 the other, quickly follow the first. The ill-fated bird attempts 

 to defend itself — to fly away, but in vain. It is struck down ; 

 again and again the blows fall on the same spot in its neck. 

 Soon it becomes exhausted, and with outstretched wings lies on 

 the ground, crying angrily and furiously no more, but wailing 

 like a sick child. Flapping along, it tries with its last strength 

 to reach a hiding-place, but its enemies are constantly overhead. 

 Finally it succeeds in dragging itself into shelter under a shrub, 

 but its fate is sealed, and a few minutes afterwards it is dead. 

 There is only one wound upon it, but that is a deadly one in the 

 back of the neck, and penetrates right into the vertebrae." 



