1596 Birds. 



Notice of ' Short Sketches of the Wild Sports and Natural History 

 of the Highlands. From the Journals of Charles St. John, Esq. 1 

 London : Murray, Albemarle Street. 1846. 



Much after the manner of White's Selbourne, but written in a very 

 different locality, Mr. St. John's work is one of the best we have met 

 with, and therefore it is a very pleasing duty to introduce it in this 

 notice to the readers of the ' Zoologist,' as one by which they must be 

 interested and instructed. Although evidently a keen sportsman, yet 

 the author has a keen eye for Nature. He has observed her in the 

 plains of Wiltshire, and in the loftiest peaks and deepest glens that 

 the Grampians of Scotland present. He has observed correctly, and 

 recorded graphically. This volume causes only one subject of regret: 

 it makes one reflect how many valuable facts, what a vast amount of 

 information, might have been collected by those — and they are many 

 — who have had as good or better opportunities than even Mr. St. 

 John. How much have we thus lost, and are daily losing ! Were 

 one-tenth of the gentlemen who annually flock to the Highlands of 

 Scotland, as the twelfth of August approaches, imbued with but a por- 

 tion of Mr. St. John's taste, the natural history of that vast mountain 

 range would have been far better known than it now is. The Gram- 

 pians would no longer have been a terra incognita. This, perhaps, 

 is rather a harsh or hasty conclusion. There may be others who have 

 observed and recorded as accurately and fully as Mr. St. John, but 

 whose manuscripts have not yet been laid before the public. If so, 

 we hope his example will be followed by all who have collected, or 

 who have an opportunity of making observations illustrative of the 

 habits of the animals that are found in the " Highlands." No doubt 

 many a sportsman could detail facts coming within his own experi- 

 ence, but the number of which prevents his adventuring upon a volume. 

 For such, the pages of the ' Zoologist ' supply the fittest medium for 

 their being brought to the light ; and it is to be hoped that a rich 

 harvest of this nature is in store for it. It is the first three classes of 

 the animal kingdom that Mr. St. John's work chiefly dwells on. As it 

 is most in keeping with the plan adopted by the ' Zoologist,' selections 

 will be made and given under these heads, to which, in the present 

 and after numbers, the attention of its readers is directed. The 

 opening page runs as follows, descriptive of the localities he has been 

 in, and his turn for such studies. — " I have lived for several years in 

 the northern counties of Scotland, and during the last four or five, in 

 the province of Moray, a part of the country peculiarly adapted for 



