6950 Notices of New Books. 



for Ornithology can have been ignorant during the last few years of the 

 name of John Wolley, so highly honoured not only in his native country, 

 but in Europe, as one of the most indefatigable and successful explorers 

 of the nesting of those birds which — seeking the highest Arctic latitudes 

 — have baffled the hitherto cursory researches of former inquirers ; and 

 who has been content to encounter, during several seasons, the rigours 

 of an Arctic winter ; fixing his abode in Lapland, on the confines of 

 Finmark, for the express purpose of being on the spot for the nesting 

 of the earliest breeders, before the snows had disappeared in the spring, 

 and communication with more southern latitudes was feasible ? Truly, 

 not only the members of the " British Ornithologist's Union," but 

 naturalists generally have sustained an irreparable loss in the death of 

 one so zealous in the cause, and withal so acute an observer, so dili- 

 gent in instituting inquiries, so painstaking in sifting information, so 

 discriminating, so careful in admitting a doubtful point as a fact; above 

 all, so accurate in apparent trifles, the thousand little points which 

 constitute the very soul of all scientific inquiry, and are of such 

 immense importance in arriving at truth, where less laborious research, 

 and too rapid jumping to conclusions are so apt to mislead into a 

 labyrinth of error, and propagate falsehood instead of facts. Now 

 the two papers by Mr. Wolley in the ' Ibis ' are admirable proofs of 

 this accuracy and diligence, and we would point them out as espe- 

 cially worthy of imitation, for in addition to their intrinsic value as 

 records of the breeding of birds whose nidification was but little 

 known, viz., the smew {Mergus alhellus) and the crane {Grus cinerea), 

 and over and above the intense interest wherewith Mr. Wolley has 

 contrived to invest his plainly-told statements, there is such a spirit 

 of truthful detail, such evident accuracy pervading each paper, that 

 we may safely assert no one can rise from their perusal with a doubt 

 on his mind that the author can have been deceived in any one par- 

 ticular which he has stated : witness his remarkable caution, we had 

 almost said unwillingness, to admit the eggs brought as those of the 

 smew, and the several links of evidence he picked up, till a chain of 

 proof was formed which left no room for suspicion : witness again 

 his admirable patience and tactics, worthy of a field officer, in mastering 

 by ocular proof all the details of the nesting of the crane. We would 

 again call particular attention to this careful regard to the smallest 

 minutiaj in dealing with little-known facts and in pushing zoological 

 inquiry, as of the last importance in helping to conclusions, and as 

 worthy of all imitation ; though we know not where to look for an 

 ornithologist so remarkable in these respects as Mr. Wolley, as 



