NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 375 



least trustworthy, and in touch with the knowledge of the day, 

 we can heartily recommend this inexpensive publication ; and its 

 writer clearly has the potentiality of producing a yet larger and 

 more exhaustive work on the same subject. 



The House Sparroiv (The Avian Rat) in relation to Agriculture 

 and Gardening, with Practical Suggestions for lessening its 

 Numbers. By W. B. Tegetmeier, F.Z.S., &c. Vinton & Co. 



Passer domesticus is now fully convicted as a pestilent 

 marauder to the crops of our fields and gardens. The verdict is 

 almost unanimous by a competent jury that includes many orni- 

 thological authorities once inclined to the non-proven theory. 

 For an absolute acquittal one might appeal in vain to any expe- 

 rienced farmer or horticulturist. It is a purely human parasite. 

 " No Sparrow's nest is ever to be found a quarter of a mile from 

 a human habitation." Its enemies are actual sufferers by its 

 depredations ; it is defended by sentiment combined with an 

 utter ignorance of its life-history. This small volume is an 

 excellent review and summary of the reasons that are procurable, 

 and can be multiplied, for an authorized diminution of its 

 numbers by justly incensed agriculturists and gardeners. An 

 appendix by Miss E. A. Ormerod supplies the particulars of the 

 monthly toll it levies on our fields and gardens. In America it 

 is reported by the United States Department of Agriculture " as 

 one of the greatest pests which could have been introduced " into 

 that country. 



A List of British Birds belonging to the Humber District (having 

 a special reference to their Migrations). Revised to April, 

 1899. By John Cordeaux, F.R.Gr.S., &c. R. H. Porter. 



We are surprised to find, from a perusal of this "pamphlet" 

 — to follow the designation of the author — that no fewer than 

 322 species are recorded as inhabiting this district, of which an 

 excellent definition is given in the preface. " This is altogether 

 a very clearly marked and well-defined faunal area, and particu- 

 larly rich in its avi-fauna, from the fact that off the mouth of the 



