NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 285 



title as " Our Indigenous Flora as Food-plants," we meet with 

 facts illustrating the change of diet animals can sustain under 

 necessity, and our author has seen sheep eating fronds of 

 Asplenium viride, Trichomanes, and Adiantum nigrum, when he 

 considers the ferns were supplying the place of trefoils " on 

 our cultivated fields."* In 1883 and 1884 he also observed 

 that all ferns in a certain district were " occasionally eaten by 

 quadrupeds." 



In a paper on the habits and instinct of the Rook, we obtain 

 a few local facts relative to the visitation of birds as modified by 

 man's action on the environment. In this part of Scotland 

 drainage has brought about the disappearance of the Snipe, 

 whilst other birds " more inclined to wade into water " have in 

 some cases resorted to moors. The Pied Wagtail has been seen 

 by Mr. Wilson several times inland during the winter season, and 

 the Lapwing has of late years shown a similar tendency. The 

 11 Great Curlew," according to our author, only found its way 

 into the moors of Aberdeenshire some forty years ago. The 

 Common Gull, Larus canus, came to the moors of Aberdeen a 

 few summers ago, and nested there. 



In conclusion we may remark that, if many of the records are 

 not told for the first time, the volume abounds with the natural 

 observations made by a shrewd Scottish yeoman and lover of 

 natural science, and should be interesting alike to those who 

 manage an estate or cultivate a farm. It would, however, be 

 improved by the supervision of a good " reader," for we do not 

 all write with the majesty of Milton or the charm of Macaulay, 

 and style has not only been known to float a bad book, but also 

 to ruin a good one. 



* Low in his 'Domesticated Animals of the British Islands' long since 

 told us how the sheep of the Zetland and Orkney Islands at certain seasons 

 find their way from the mountains to the shores, and feed on the Fuci and 

 other marine plants. 



