NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 33 
of their own. ‘One of the civilities demanded by the etiquette 
of the place is that you shall shake hands with everybody you 
come in contact with night and morning.” This practice of 
excessive hand-shaking seems common to simple folk who live 
much alone or by themselves, and recalls the same awful ordeal 
with the Transvaal Boers.* ‘‘ The married women are dis- 
tinguished from the unmarried ones by a white frill which is 
worn in front of the head-shawl or handkerchief, and serves the 
part of a wedding-ring, which is unknown in St. Kilda.” To 
judge from the illustration. this emblem of matrimony is not 
unlike the badge which widows adopt among ourselves. These 
St. Kilda ladies have other more universal traits, as when the 
minister’s servant-maid ‘“‘ asked permission to take the hearth- 
rug to church by way of a shawl.” 
The ornithological fauna of the island may well attract both 
ornithologist and oologist. The claims of the St. Kilda Wren to 
be considered specifically distinct from the mainland bird are 
well set out, and photographs given of the eggs and fledglings 
of both birds. It would, however, be unwise to accept the ornitho- 
logical lore of the natives, as Mr. Kearton was told, “in all good 
faith and sincerity, that Great Northern Divers make no nest at all, 
but hatch their single egg under their wings,” in which position 
his informant “had himself seen a bird carrying one.” 
Chapter V., on “ Nests, Eggs, and Young,” is one of the 
most interesting in the book, both by its illustrations and 
subject-matter. Mr. Kearton is of opinion “ that birds, like 
human beings, possess individually varying degrees of intelli- 
gence, skill, and energy, and that differences in any of these 
qualities are to the close observer plainly marked in the con- 
structive character of their work.” There are many illustrations 
of strange nesting sites; of old birds on, and young birds in, 
their nests; while the chapter closes with a charming vignette 
of a spider’s web covered with hoar frost. 
We have read this book with pleasure, and closed it with regret. 
** Other similar traits belonging to these widely separated and isolated 
peoples are their tastes for sweets, in St. Kilda ‘“ especially ‘ bull’s-eyes’ and 
peppermint lozenges”; while nothing delights these islanders more ‘‘ (men 
and women alike) than to hear that the enemy is being smitten hip and 
thigh.”” The Transvaal Boer should spend a sea-side holiday at St. Kilda. 
Zool. 4th Ser. vol. I1., January, 1898. D 
