428 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Bird Life in an Arctic Spring. The Diaries of Dan Meinertz- 

 hagen and R. P. Hornby. R. H. Porter. 



This small but beautifully illustrated book is the verbatim 

 diary of a three months' sojourn in the Arctic regions in 1897. 

 It does not add much to the knowledge of scientific ornithology, 

 but it will be read with pleasure by all lovers of birds. It is no 

 small advantage to now and again meet with a naturalist who 

 really loves his subject, and is not merely a describer of species, 

 a critical nomenclator, or a resurrectionist in archaic techni- 

 calities. Dan Meinertzhagen was none of these things ; his 

 birds were evidently to him living realities, and subjects for a 

 very considerable artistic capacity, as plates in this volume bear 

 witness. One of the most original observations we have met in 

 these pages does not refer to birds at all. "It is a curious fact 

 that pine and fir trees, when they rot while standing, warp from 

 right to left, and birch from left to right. This is almost inva- 

 riably the case." 



An Appendix on the " Mottisfont Birds " relates to one of 

 the largest collections of living Eagles and raptorial birds in this 

 country, formed by Meinertzhagen, and located at Mottisfont 

 Abbey, on the Test, near Romsey, the residence of his father. 

 This young ornithologist died last year, at the early age of 

 twenty-three. 



