318 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
hoped to have been able to add the Jackdaw to our list, as none have 
ever used the boxes, but the only pair which have nested in the place 
during the twenty-five seasons we have been here preferred a cavity 
high up in a beech. This season there has been an unusual amount 
of ‘infant mortality” among the birds, whole broods having been 
found dead in the nests. The last of the four owlets in the box, 
which was all right on a Friday evening, was dead on the following 
Sunday, much to the disappointment of some young friends who came 
to see it. I have often found bees in the boxes, and once a hornet, 
and it is possible that a sting from some insect might have caused 
its death.—Junian G. Tuck (Tostock Rectory, Bury St. Edmunds). 


NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 
The Depths of the Ocean: a General Account of the Modern 
Science of Oceanography, based largely on the Scientific 
Researches of the Norwegian Steamer, ‘ Michael Sars,’ in 
the North Atlantic. By Sir Jonn Murray, K.C.B., F.R.S., 
&e., and Dr. Jonan Hsort, with contributions from Pro- 
fessors A. APPELLOF and H. H. Gran and Dr. B. Henuanp- 
Hansen. Macmillan & Co. 
Tur name of Sir John Murray will always be associated with 
the ‘ Challenger’ expedition ; it must also be connected with the 
cruise of the ‘ Michael Sars,’ for Dr. Hjort tells us in his preface 
that ‘‘ Sir John Murray wrote to me that if the Norwegian Govern- 
ment would lend the ‘ Michael Sars’ and her scientific staff for 
a few months’ summer cruise in the North Atlantic, he would 
pay all the other expenses.’’ This volume describes the scientific 
results of this cruise, results that may well satisfy all concerned, 
and which afford material of the highest value to the science of 
Oceanography. 
To readers of ‘The Zoologist’ the biological narrative will 
prove the most attractive, and chap. x., ‘‘ General Biology,” is 
worthy of the most careful perusal, for it deals with many 
