4270 Notices of New Books. 



wholesome dread. Point but a stick at one and away it flies, while 

 yet two or three hundred yards distant, and alarms the whole winged 

 fraternity with his cries. Crows flock from all quarters, and, sailing 

 high in air, caw in concert till the object of their dread has disap- 

 peared. However, should one unwary bird fall before the gun, his 

 companions hasten to assist him, and will often raise him up, and fly 

 so heedlessly round the head of the fowler, that a dozen perhaps may 

 be shot before the remainder, conscious of their danger, seek safety in 

 flight. Their nests are loose structures of sticks lined with hair, built 

 in cocoa-nut or other trees, and the eggs are 1 inch 7 lines long by 1 

 inch 1 line broad. The general colour is a light bluish green, mot- 

 tled more sparingly than those of the carrion crow with dark brown, 

 the markings also being at the obtuse end ; but in these particulars 

 considerable variation occurs in both species, and I have some eggs 

 in which the markings are almost obsolete." — P. 214. 



c The Natural History Review? January, 1854 : 40 pages 8vo. 

 Price Six Shillings a-year. Dublin: Hodges and Smith. Lon- 

 don : Simpkin, Marshall, & Co. 



We shall probably ere long have an opportunity of announcing 

 more confidently than we can at present, those particulars concerning 

 this new undertaking for which every Magazine and book buyer will 

 at once ask. For instance : — How often will it appear ? Has it a 

 fixed periodicity, or an erratic course ? What is the price of each 

 number ? Is this the first of a series ? What is its object ? Is it to 

 be confined to reviews and reports of Societies, as in the present in- 

 stance, or is to embrace the whole range of Natural History? As the 

 book is kindly transmitted to us for review, we would gladly give all 

 the information in our power respecting it ; more especially as we can- 

 not, with any propriety, review a review, or criticise the authorised 

 reports of scientific Societies. The work, in fact, takes so nearly the 

 same ground as the ' Zoologist,' that it were scarcely seemly on our 

 part to pen a single sentence that might even appear to blame, lest it 

 be thought that we were suffering under a nervous apprehension of 

 troublesome rivalry; whereas nothing can be more gratifying than the 

 manner in which the * Zoologist' is spoken of in the new journal : if 

 the publication of such a journal could occasion the slightest sore, 

 the balm of its editorial approbation must effectually heal the wound. 



