114 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



the neighbourhood of Oxford, and in the north-west of the county, 

 contained in the chapters on the Birds of an English City and a Midland 

 Village." 



Such are the only works treating of the Ornithology of Oxford- 

 shire especially which Mr. Aplin has been able to discover, but he 

 has industriously collected scattered notes from various other 

 printed sources, and has added numerous observations of his 

 own. As a result, we have probably as good a guide to the Avi- 

 fauna of Oxfordshire as existing materials will permit. 



On the strength of a single occurrence of the Alpine Chough 

 in the county, a specimen having been shot in the park at 

 Broughton, in April, 1881 ('Zoologist,' 1881, pp. 422, 471, and 

 1882, p. 431), Mr. Aplin gives a coloured plate of this bird for a 

 frontispiece. Feeling some misgiving as to the advent of this 

 non-migratory species without the intervention of some importer 

 of live birds, from whom it may have escaped, we would rather 

 have seen a coloured portrait of the Hemipode shot at Chipping 

 Norton (p. 135), or the immature Black Stork (p. 187) which was 

 killed by a wildfowl shooter at Charlton-on-Otmoor, in August, 

 1865. The Alpine Chough furnishes the only illustration to the 

 book, but a good map is appended, which will be found useful for 

 determining the precise position of localities mentioned when 

 they happen to be little known. 



The Birds of Berwickshire : with remarks on their local Distribution, 

 Migration, and Habits, and also on the Folklore, Proverbs, 

 Popular Rhymes and sayings connected with them. By George 

 Muirhead, F.B.S.E., F.Z.S. In two Volumes. Vol. I. 

 8vo, pp. 334. With numerous illustrations and a folding 

 map. Edinburgh, David Douglas, 1889. 



It will be seen from the wording of the title above quoted, 

 that there is a good deal more in this volume than one is 

 accustomed to find or expect in an ordinary local Fauna, and 

 interesting enough as the letter-press undoubtedly is, we question 

 the wisdom of bringing together in this way such very distinct 

 subjects as county ornithology and popular rhymes and proverbs. 

 There is of course, in one sense, a connection between them, but 



