38 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



Nature in Eastern Norfolk. By Arthur H. Patterson. 

 Methuen & Co. 



This book is devoted to the fauna of Great Yarmouth and its 

 vicinity, and our readers will remember a number of faunistic 

 papers contributed by the author to these pages during the last 

 few years. These revised and enlarged form a very large portion 

 of the volume, and constitute a handbook that will be indis- 

 pensable to naturalists who explore that once famous and still 

 more than interesting district. 



The chapter devoted to " Some General Observations on the 

 Fauna " will prove the charm of the book to those whose zoo- 

 logical proclivities have not attained the purely special character. 

 We read of the changes that can take place, principally by the 

 agency of man, in a local fauna during the term of a single 

 human life ; the reminiscences of hardy and obscure folk who 

 gained a precarious livelihood as wildfowlers, better known as 

 "Breydoners " — are well, sympathetically, and racily told ; and 

 there is a welcome record of the more favoured local collectors, 

 mostly of a bygone time, and the rarities which came into their 

 possession. But many a rare bird has been killed and un- 

 recognized in this favoured locality. '"' It is on record that 

 Lilly Wigg, an old-time Yarmouth naturalist, cooked and ate a 

 Bed-breasted Goose (Bernicla rvficollis), and did not even guess 

 its species until the feathers afterwards attracted his attention." 

 Birds alone have not become scarcer in Eastern Norfolk; mighty 

 Perch {Perca fluviatilis) , of which captures are recorded weighing 

 four to four and a half pounds, are not heard of now ; large 

 examples are less frequently taken, and "it is said that the 

 Aiiacharis weed has injuriously invaded many of the Perch's 

 spawning quarters." 



Twelve coloured illustrations by Mr. F. Southgate add to the 

 value of this excellent narrative of a local fauna. 



