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NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS 



The Birds of Essex : a Contribution to the Natural History of the 

 County. By Miller Christy, F.L.S. With 162 woodcut 

 illustrations, two plans, and a frontispiece. 8vo, pp. 302. 

 Chelmsford (Durrant & Co.), Buckhurst Hill (The Essex 

 Field Club), and London (Simpkin, Marshall & Co.). 1890. 



In this closely-printed, profusely-illustrated volume, which 

 has just been issued as the second of the Essex Field Club 

 Special Memoirs, we have the latest addition to the published 

 treatises on county ornithology, of which there is now so goodly 

 a series. It has been no secret that for a long time past 

 Mr. Miller Christy has been collecting information for this 

 work, and in dealing with the mass of material that has come 

 to hand, his industry and judgment are apparent upon almost 

 every page. 



Referring to the scope and aim of the work (Introduction, 

 p. 7), the author says : — 



" General information as to the habits and natural history of the 

 species described, though not actually out of place, if space permits its 

 insertion, is nevertheless by no means a prime requisite. A county or 

 other local ornithology should, according to my ideas, deal primarily with 

 the distribution and the frequency or otherwise of the species found within 

 the area treated of, and of their habits and migrations within that area. 

 More general information should, I consider, be reserved for more compre- 

 hensive and general works, treating of the entire natural history of the 

 species. Hence I have inserted in these pages very little upon the 

 general habits of birds." 



Mr. Christy's list contains the names of no less than 

 272 species, of which five are especially remarkable because 

 their occurrence in Essex led to their being described 

 for the first time as British birds. These are the Alpine 

 Accentor, shot near Walthamstow, on the borders of Epping 

 Forest; the Blue-headed Wagtail, obtained by Henry Doubleday 

 at Walton-on-the-Naze in October, 1834 ; the Pheasant, con- 

 cerning which we would remark that although the earliest record 



