NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 393 



• 

 of the nest of that bird appear in the second volume. " The 

 Curlew's ancestry in Yorkshire is of great antiquity, for it is 

 mentioned in connection with the Nevell banquet at Cawood in 

 1466, the items at the feast including ' Curlewes 100 ' (Leland's 

 'Collectanea')." An excellent photo-block illustrates young 

 Curlews just hatching. The number of photo-blocks of nests 

 and eggs in these volumes give the best guarantee for the pre- 

 servation of many species. The gun is now much less used by 

 collectors, and nests will frequently have little molestation by the 

 ornithologist who only " takes " them with his camera. 



It is, however, unnecessary to give extracts from volumes 

 which most ornithologists and lovers of birds probably already 

 possess. The work has been compiled and written with the 

 assistance of every competent observer and recorder in York- 

 shire, and it is in the wise selection of records (for many given 

 in all good faith are sometimes mistaken and not infrequently 

 erroneous) that Mr. Nelson and his colleagues have shown an 

 adequate discretion and a judicious discrimination. This county 

 history can rank as a trustworthy history of British Birds, and 

 that is probably the highest praise that can be given to a local 

 publication. 



Malaria; a Neglected Factor in the History of Greece and Rome. 

 By W. H. S. Jones, M.A. With an Introduction by Major 

 B. Boss, F.B.S., &c, and a concluding Chapter by G. G. 

 Ellett, M.B. Cambridge : Macmillan & Bowes. 



The argument in this book is of transcendent interest. Was 

 the decline in the Greece of Art and Philosophy and the Borne 

 of Law and Conquest incidental to moral degeneration, or was it 

 due to a physical cause ? — the moral degeneration being a subse- 

 quence to malaria. Mr. Jones has apparently proved his thesis 

 that malaria was introduced and spread in the area of those two 

 great civilizations, and in doing this he has pursued the historical 

 method, and searched for his proofs among the best of the 

 classics. 



So far the argument has not entered the domain of zoology ; 

 the full discussion of this point has been allotted to Major Boss, 

 who has found renown in the discovery that the multitudes of 

 Zool. 4th set. vol. XI., October, 1907. 2 h 



