280 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



be increasingly modified in seeming imitation during ensuing 

 generations (p. 181). 



In allusion to this line of argument, the author asks (p. 228), 

 "Is it strange that a Woodpecker should have a cry exactly 

 like the note of its neighbour a Tree Frog (p. 188), whose cries 

 may be a survival of the complainings of the permian epoch ? Is 

 it wonderful that in autumn the Brown Wren should particularly 

 affect a little chirp like the chirp of its companion at that season, 

 a cricket, whose note may have first been produced by an ortho- 

 pterous ancestor in the coal period" ? 



The music of Bird-song is the concluding theme, and treats 

 of the strains of various birds ; but in regard to the musical 

 notation given of the songs of the better singers, such as the 

 Robin, Blackbird, and Blackcap, the author gives some of the 

 strains he has heard, not as recording the whole song of any one 

 species — which he says are impossible to record on account of 

 their variety — but as indicating how diverse such songs really 

 are, and how impossible it is to attempt, as is sometimes done, 

 to give an idea of a whole song by means of a few bars of 

 music. 



Mr. Witchell has attacked a very large subject, and, as he 

 tells us in his preface, he thought out his method of attacking it 

 without the aid of books. The points he raises are so many, and 

 not a few of them so new, that a considerable time must elapse 

 before any general conclusion on the merits of his labours can 

 be reached. It is probable that (as we feel sure he would admit) 

 some of his positions would be found untenable in the light of 

 the fuller investigation which his book should occasion; but, on 

 the other hand, many of his views seem not only plausible, but 

 are justified by a considerable amount of evidence. At any rate, 

 he has produced a volume which enters laboriously upon an 

 unworked field, and no one interested in the voices of wild birds 

 and desirous to investigate the evidence of their development, 

 should miss an opportunity of perusing it. It is to be regretted 

 that the Bibliography was not revised, and made more complete, 

 as it might well have been. 



