NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 471 



destroyed on that occasion. It is now some years since this insect has 

 been seen here.— 0. Pickard- Cambridge (Bloxworth Eectory). 



Goldsmith as a Naturalist. — Butcher Bird. — That Goldsmith, 

 when speaking of " the Butcher Bird, little bigger than a Titmouse, 

 living in the marshes near London" was referring to the Bearded Tit, 

 I should think, almost certain, after reading the suggestion of the Rev. 

 Maurice Bird {ante, p. 439), and looking up the authors he mentions, 

 I am afraid I was ignorant of the fact that the Bearded Tit had ever 

 been termed the " Least Grey Shrike." In Edwards's book, under 

 this species, I see that it had been shot on several occasions " in 

 marshes near London." As this book was published in 1745, Goldsmith, 

 in writing his ' Animated Nature ' some thirty years later, no doubt 

 made use of it, and inserted his vague remark about this species, 

 almost quoting word for word. — Bruce F. Cummings (14, Cross Street, 

 Barnstaple). 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



A Vertebrate Fauna of Scotland. Tay Basin and Strathmore. 



By J. A. Harvie-Brown, F.R.S.E , &c. Edinburgh : David 



Douglas. 

 This forms the tenth in a series of volumes devoted to a record 

 of the vertebrate fauna of Scotland, as important a contribution 

 to Scottish history as that almost universally devoted to the 

 doings of noble, laird, or kirk. We often hear the remark of 

 "back to the land," but how little we know about it and its 

 inhabitants other than ourselves ! We can find an account of 

 the doings of early freebooters, but the fauna of a few hundred 

 years ago can on general inference be only visualized, for 

 there is no faunistic record, no local enumeration — in fact, out- 

 side so recent a period as mentioned, we are in the region of 

 animal folk-lore ; while stray passages in old songs, or a few 

 references in old books and chronicles, are all we have to compare 

 with faunistic knowledge as understood to-day. Like national 

 zoological paupers, we have slowly garnered these faunistic 

 riches, which we hand on to our descendants, who should by 

 their aid be able to solve many of those problems relating to 

 migration and environment, which we without such an inherit- 



