NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 39 



The Birds of Oxfordshire. By 0. V. Aplin. 8vo, pp. 213. : 

 With a map. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 1889. 



Partly by personal observation, and partly through the assist- 

 ance of friends and correspondents who have paid attention to 

 the birds to be found in Oxfordshire, Mr. Aplin has brought 

 together a good deal of information on the subject, and has 

 arranged it concisely and well. In an Introduction of some 

 twenty pages he has sketched the physical features of the county, 

 and noticed the principal published sources of information from 

 which any ornithological notes relating to Oxford could be 

 gleaned. These are by no means numerous, the most important 

 being a list of the Birds of Oxfordshire, comprising 232 species, 

 contributed by the Kevs. A. and H. Matthews to the pages of 

 'The Zoologist' in 1849—50. Dr. Lamb's ' Ornithologia 

 Bercheria,' written about 1814, but printed for the first time in 

 1 The Zoologist ' for 1880, is also quoted, as is Mr. Fowler's list 

 of 104 species appended to his little book, ' A Year with the Birds.' 

 From these and other sources Mr. Aplin has been able to find 

 evidence of the occurrence of 242 species, of which 60 are 

 regarded as resident in the county, 71 periodical migrants, and 

 111 occasional or accidental visitors. 



Amongst the changes in the avifauna which have taken place 

 within the century, Mr. Aplin deplores the almost total dis- 

 appearance of the Kite, Buzzard, Harrier, Kaven, and Bittern. 

 The trips of Dotterel once seen regularly on their passage in 

 spring and autumn are now rarely observed, and the Stone 

 Curlew no longer rears its young on the stony fields on the hills 

 about Sarsden and Chadlington, and has probably entirely ceased 

 to breed in the county, save in one locality in the extreme south. 

 The Quail is less often seen, and in fewer numbers than formerly, 

 a fact observed in other parts of England. On the other hand, 

 the Goldfinch, which, as a breeding species, had a few years 

 since become very scarce, has within the last four or five years 

 (probably owing to the operation of the Wild Birds Protection 

 Act) been steadily increasing again, and at the present time is 

 fairly numerous. The Ked-legged Partridge, too, which fifty 

 years ago was very rare, is increasing and spreading, and is now 

 generally distributed over most parts of the county. The Haw- 

 finch, Wood Pigeon, Starling, and Sparrow are likewise included 



