NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 233 



ference, and has held very little water since 1844.* These are, 

 doubtless, small matters, but it is well to be accurate. 



In the notice of previous publications on the natural history 

 of Devonshire, we were not prepared to find so high a value placed 

 on Mr. Brooking Rowe's Catalogue (p. xv), which is scarcely 

 more than a bare list of names, conveying little information ; 

 most of the species being described as "common," "not 

 uncommon," " rare," " scarce," or " occasionally met with," 

 while several of the commoner birds are omitted altogether. 

 Mr. D'Urban's much more complete List, printed in Besley's 

 * Handbook of Exeter,' 1863 (second edition, revised in 1871), 

 and his fuller List in the ' Handbook for South Devon,' 1875, 

 ought surely to have deserved mention, especially as several of 

 the statements therein seem to have been copied (no doubt 

 unconsciously), at third hand, from writers who have omitted to 

 acknowledge the source of their information. 



We are glad to see the obituary memoir of John Gatcombe, 

 which is incorporated in the Introduction (pp. xvi-xxii), and 

 forms a fitting tribute to the memory of one of the keenest of 

 Devonshire naturalists, whose articles, published in ' The 

 Zoologist,' have apparently furnished the greater portion (cer- 

 tainly the most valuable part) of the information contained in the 

 volume before us. 



Turning to the body of the book, it strikes us that, in the case 

 of some of the species mentioned, some interesting points have 

 not been sufficiently investigated. We will deal with them in the 

 order in which they occur. 



On p. 15 it is remarked that the Lesser Whitethroat, Sylvia 

 curruca, " has not, as yet, been found breeding in the county." 

 Has our author overlooked the statement, by Mr. G. F. Mathew 

 (' Naturalist,' 1866, p. 358), to the effect that it has nested in 

 North Devon ? His words are : — " I have repeatedly seen this 

 bird and taken its nest, and do not call it uncommon in the 

 neighbourhood of Barnstaple." We are not aware that this 

 observation has been shown to have originated in a mistake. 



The Dartford Warbler (p. 16) is, perhaps, extinct now in 

 Devonshire, none having been reported since 1877; but if the 





* See Rowe's ' Perambulation of Dartmoor,' and Crossing's ' Amid 

 Devonia's Alps.' 



ZOOLOGIST. — JUNE, 1891. T 



