NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 279 



behindhand in contributing to the general literature of the 

 subject. In the little volume with the above title we have a 

 series of essays not only on Hawks and Owls, but also on Rooks, 

 Crows, Wood Pigeons, Starlings, Sparrows, and other small 

 birds, as well as on the Pheasant, Partridge, and Grouse. 



We cannot say that this collection is particularly well edited, 

 either as regards arrangement of material, or editorial notes, 

 which in the entire volume do not amount to more than half a 

 dozen in number ; but we have at all events an expression of 

 views from such good observers as Miss Ormerod, Messrs. Aplin, 

 Gurney, Nelson, Southwell, Tuck, and other contributors to this 

 Journal, all of whose essays contain useful and reliable infor- 

 mation. Several of the articles appear to have been previously 

 published in various periodicals, which causes certain statements 

 to appear somewhat out of date, and the editor would have done 

 well to have indicated when and where they originally appeared. 





The Birds of Staffordshire : with illustrations of local Bird-haunts. 

 By Alexander McAldowie, M.D., Vice-President of the 

 North Staffordshire Naturalists' Field Club. 8vo, pp. 150. 

 Printed for Private Distribution. 1893. 



Dr. McAldowie has rendered good service to Ornithology by 

 printing these collected observations on the birds of a county 

 concerning which we have had no comprehensive work since the 

 appearance some fifty years ago of Mr. Garner's ' Natural History 

 of the County of Stafford.' But, as will be seen by the two pages 

 of bibliography at the end of the present volume, there have been 

 a certain number of fragmentary contributions printed from time 

 to time in the pages of local Natural History journals and county 

 histories. From these and other sources (such as Plot's well- 

 known work, 1686, and Ray's translation of Willughby's * Orni- 

 thology,' 1678) Dr. McAldowie has compiled a goodly catalogue of 

 county birds, adding remarks of his own. But it seems to us 

 that a number of species have been included on very slender 

 evidence. For example, there appears to be little or no ground for 

 ranking amongst Staffordshire birds such species as the Dartford 

 Warbler, Aquatic Warbler, Bearded Tit (though this species was 

 thought to have formerly frequented Aqualate Mere), Richard's 



