

NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 11? 



Nor can we see any justification for importing into an account 

 of the fauna of an inland county remarks on the bones of some 

 unknown species of whale, obviously and admittedly transported 

 from a distance, to serve as gate-posts, and heralded with the 

 announcement in large type " Order Cetacea ; Suborder Mysta- 

 coceti; Family Balgenidse : Whale, Balcena (sp. inc.)." 



Equally out of place, as it seems to us, are the observations 

 on the first page of the book which follow the words " Order 

 Mammalia; Subclass Eutheria (or Monodelphia). Order Pri- 

 mates ; Suborder Anthropoidea ; Family Hominida3 : Man, Homo 

 sapiens, Linnaeus." This labelling of every species in museum 

 fashion has a pretentious and pedantic look about it which, in 

 our opinion, detracts very much from the appearance and merit 

 of the book. 



Mr. Browne, it must be confessed, has displayed considerable 

 industry in collecting materials for his undertaking, and if he 

 has sometimes attached too much importance to the bombastic 

 utterances of such writers as Harley (whose statements usually 

 convey the smallest modicum of fact with the greatest amount 

 of verbosity), it has been doubtless from a desire to omit nothing 

 which seemed to have any relation, however slight, to the fauna 

 of Leicestershire. This endeavour, however, to make the most of 

 things, may be carried too far ; as, for example, in the case of the 

 Dartford Warbler, the Grey-headed Yellow Wagtail, Golden Oriole, 

 and Temminck's Stint, species which are only introduced for the 

 purpose of showing that they have no claim to be included in the 

 Catalogue of county birds. Similarly, the Avocet is accorded 

 a place in the list merely on the strength of a bird seen, and 

 supposed to have been an Avocet, at the junction of the Rivers 

 Trent and Soar, where the counties of Leicester, Nottingham, 

 and Derby meet. 



It is always a matter of regret for the naturalist to note the 

 disappearance of any species from its ancient haunts ; and the 

 extinction of both the Black and Red Grouse in Leicestershire, 

 as chronicled by Mr. Browne (pp. 142, 143), furnishes another 

 illustration of the changes which may be effected in the fauna of 

 a district by man's alteration of the original condition of things. 

 The Goshawk and the Kite are also considered to be extinct. It 

 is surely by some inadvertence that the author expresses his 

 happiness (instead of his regret) at being enabled to record the 



