NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 313 



quite aware of this, and gives his reasons for confining his remarks 

 to the central and eastern Alps, dealing with the western only to 

 include that small portion on the southern, or Italian, side which 

 is the haunt of the Ibex or Bouquetin. The first and best reason 

 is that the Swiss Alps harbour comparatively few Chamois, and 

 no Red Deer ; the second and more personal reason given is that 

 " Switzerland, since fashion has made it the goal of ever-increasing 

 crowds of holiday makers, has lost its charm for an admirer of 

 alpine solitude and unsophisticated mountain life." To view 

 nature amid surroundings to which one is condemned by this 

 invasion is not an unalloyed pleasure. Fortunately there are wide 

 and beautiful districts left in the Alps which are as yet uninvaded 

 by fashionable crowds, and to these byeways Mr. Baillie Grohman 

 invites us to accompany him. 



As the title of his book implies, his object is "sport"; and 

 were it nothing but a record of sport, we should not feel called 

 upon to review it at much length in a journal devoted to natural 

 history. But incidentally we come across such good descriptions 

 of the haunts of wild game, and such interesting statements con- 

 cerning its abundance or otherwise, and geographical distribution, 

 that we are tempted to give a longer notice of the work than 

 might otherwise appear justifiable. 



As the title above quoted sufficiently indicates the contents 

 of the book, we may plunge at once in medias res. Several 

 authorities on Chamois state that 300 years ago these animals 

 were scarcer in the Austrian and Bavarian Alps than they are at 

 the present time, and, in proof of this contention, aver that the 

 old game registers of noble sportsmen afford little or no evidence 

 of their former abundance. In this our author does not agree, 

 for what is true in the case of the Roe Deer (viz. that 300 years 

 ago there was but one Roe to every six Red Deer, while to-day 

 this order is reversed), does not hold good to anything like the 

 same extent for the Chamois. The extermination of the Bear, 

 the Wolf, the Lynx, and the Wild Cat, all deadly foes of the Roe 

 Deer, and accountable for its decrease, was a matter of less 

 moment to the Chamois, owing to the elevation and barren 

 nature of its haunts. 



It is true that the greatest enemies of the Chamois, namely 

 the Lammergeier and the Golden Eagle, have well nigh shared 



ZOOLOGIST, THIRD SERIES, VOL. XX. AUGUST, 1890. 2 B 



