6948 Notices of New Books. 



and who have ptished their investigations and learned their lessons in 

 all parts of the world ; — no carpet knights but knights errant in 

 good truth, who have given proof in this first volume of their yjrowess 

 and brilliant achievements from the icebound coasts of Spitzbergen, 

 and the inhospitable snows of Lapland, to the burning shores of the 

 Red Sea, and the tropical districts of Central America and the West 

 Indies. 



To take a rapid glance at the contents of the volume before us, and 

 beginning with Europe, we have a graphic account of the discovery of 

 some nests of the black woodpecker [Picus martins) in Sweden, by Mr. 

 Simpson ; admirable papers on the breeding of the smew {Mergus 

 albellus) and of the crane {Grus cinerea) in Lapland, by Mr. Wolley, 

 of which more anon ; and notes on the birds of Western Spitzbergen, 

 by Messrs. Evans and Sturge. 



Passing on to Africa we are not surprised to find that continent 

 moi*e especially favoured by the devotees of the Ibis, and here we have 

 papers on the feathered inhabitants of the Great Desert of the Sahara 

 and of Northern Africa, generally from the truthful pen of the Rev. 

 H. B. Trislrara, who has passed several winters in those localities. 

 Also a narrative of five months birds'-nesting in the Eastern Atlas, by 

 the cosmopolitan, Mr. O. Salvin ; Ornithological Reminiscences of 

 Egypt, by Mr. Taylor ; and Lists of Birds from Ibadan in Western 

 Africa, and Natal in South Eastern Africa, by Mr, Gurney, than whom 

 no one has a more general knowledge of birds, more particularly of 

 the Raptorial order. 



The continent of Asia has hitherto been little noticed by contributors 

 to the ' Ibis,' Mr. Tristram's paper on " Birds observed in Southern 

 Palestine," and Mr. Gurney's " List of Birds of Prey from Beyrout," 

 comprising all from the East, though perhaps there is no field which 

 promises so rich a harvest to future explorers, which has been so little 

 trodden hitherto, and which we trust to see taken in hand by some of 

 the more adventurous members of the British Ornithologist's Union 

 than Asia generally, more especially the districts bordering on the 

 Caspian, and the great kingdom of Tartary. 



Crossing the Atlantic, the Western Hemisphere is not without its 

 investigators ; first and foremost we have the "Ornithology of Central 

 America " by the excellent Editor (to whom we would pay a passing 

 compliment on his success in nursing the infant ' Ibis ' through its 

 first year, no slight task, the delicacy of the bird and our uncongenial 

 climate considered), wherein he has been ably seconded by Mr. Salvin, 

 who is now, for the second time, examining the Fauna of the Central 



