278 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



Field-Studies of some Rarer British Birds. By John Walpole- 

 Bond. Witherby & Co. 



This is one of the most interesting of all recent books on 

 the birds of the British Archipelago. As we read these pages 

 we are with live birds themselves in their natural environment, 

 the intricacies of a revised nomenclature are quite unimportant, 

 classification is forgotten, we are not out for skins but for facts 

 in avian economy, eggs are observed — not clutched. Some of the 

 records, of course, are not unfamiliar to field ornithologists, but 

 very many are quite original and hitherto unrecorded, while en 

 masse they will greatly encourage and enrich the annals of 

 " bird- watching." The suggestion that Crossbills may in some 

 instances be triple-brooded will be new to many, and so also 

 will be the fact " that in hard springs (or rather late winters) 

 Ravens are apt to be forward with their domestic affairs, in open 

 seasons, backward." 



Seventeen birds afford the material for eighteen chapters, 

 and we hope that Mr. Walpole-Bond will publish some more of 

 his notes (which he undoubtedly possesses) on other British birds. 



The Naturalist at the Sea- Shore. By Richard Elmhirst, F.L.S., 

 Superintendent of the Marine Biological Station, Millport. 

 Adam & Charles Black. 



This is a recent volume of the series of books published 

 under the comprehensive title of "Peeps at Nature," and is 

 written by one who, as superintendent of a Scottish marine 

 biological station, is master of his subject. Such a book is very 

 opportune at this season of the year, and should be in vogue 

 among seaside visitors who feel an interest in the plant and 

 animal life of the coast line they may frequent. These pages 

 contain a great deal of zoological information, which is not only 



