NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 239 



Jan. 17th. — Cased a Pomatorhine Skua in immature plumage, shot 

 in November, 1901, by a fisherman at the mouth of the River Taw. 



Jan. 19th. — A flock of Coal-Tits at Tawstock Woods. This is a 

 very uncommon Tit in North Devon, and is not often met with. How- 

 ever, "West Buckland, nine miles from Barnstaple, is the exception 

 which proves the rule, for here it is numerous in the thick plantations, 

 and breeds. The Marsh-Tit is very common. 



Jan. 24iA. — The keeper of the Hospital Ship at the estuary of the 

 Taw has cared for a Herring-Gull (once shot in the wing) so long now, 

 that, though quite well and allowed its liberty, it refuses to leave the 

 neighbourhood. Every morning it comes aboard for a breakfast, which 

 is always given it, and during the day picks up its own food from the 

 river with one or two other Gulls, but it mostly prefers its own com- 

 pany. A whistle or a signal with the arm will bring him up almost 

 immediately, sailing round the ship, but he will not pitch if there is a 

 stranger about. 



Feb. 24£/i. — Saw a solitary Wader on the river up by the South 

 Walk. I thought at first sight it was a Common Sandpiper, but I 

 believe it must have been the variety of Dunlin known as " Shintz's 

 Dunlin." Its bill was short, but in size like a Dunlin with the same 

 plumage. It was very tame, so I was able to examine it well. I have 

 never seen a Dunlin so far up the river, and especially not where 

 townspeople are passing up and down continually on both banks. — 

 Bruce F. Cumminrs. 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



The British Freshwater Rhizopocla and Heliozoa. By James Cash. 

 Assisted by John Hopkinson, F.L.S., &c. Bay Society. 



To many zoologists the subject-matter of this book must prove 

 the limitation of much of our knowledge. How little we know of 

 living creatures as a whole ! and the more we specialize our 

 studies the less we know of animated nature in a comprehensive 

 view. It is this narrowness in purview that vitiates our theories, 

 and causes many of the evolutionary systems, so frequently pro- 

 pounded, to rest on the advocacy of circumscribed observers and 

 to lack finality. With these minute and lowly organized crea- 

 tures, only to be studied by the aid of a microscope, has arisen 



