I9I5- 



Reviews. 



95 



Again, the statement that the Tawu}- Owl " has been hitroduced into 

 Ireland"' would seem to suggest that some survivors of the introductioji 

 (perpetrated in the year 1900) in Co. Down, which give rise to some corres- 

 pondence in this journal in icjoi, are still in existence. But as four of the 

 six introduced birds are known to have been shot, and Mr. Foster tells 

 me that nothing has since been heard of the rest, it may fairly be assumed 

 that this would be a mistake. 



Of the House -IMartin — now to be known under the strange name of 

 DeUchon nrhica — we are told that it is less widely distributed (than in 

 England) " in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland, and rare there as 

 a nesting -species."' The language is ambiguous, as the word " there " 

 may possibly be meant to cover only the Highlands of Scotland, though 

 most readers would take it as including Ireland also. The House -Martin, 

 however, cannot fairly be called " rare " as a breeding species in this 

 country. It is far less numerous than in England, and — though nesting 

 in every count}- — is often absent over considerable stretches of seemingly 

 suitable ground. This, however, might also be said of the Sparrow — 

 which the List — not quite accurately — describes as " almost universally 

 distributed where there arc habitations." 



On the subject of the Irish Coal Titmice, Mr. Foster's experience in 

 Co. Down is not in accordance with the opinion suggested on -p. 56, that 

 all our breeding birds are of the form hihernicus. He considers that 

 most of the Down specimens are indistinguishable from P. ater britaiinicus. 

 Possibly closer examination might tend to show^ that they are an inter- 

 mediate form, but it seems undesirable that too many should Ix' killed 

 to elucidate the point. On the vvhole, the subject of Irish birds has been 

 well and carefully handled, and it may have been advisedly that at least 

 one interesting case of the recent nidification of a rare breeding -bird in 

 this country has been left without mention. The QuaU was certainly 

 common in Ireland up to a considerably later date than 1850, and Mr. 

 Foster says it continued so to his knowledge up to the early seventies 

 in Down, Antrim, and Tyrone ; but other local records with regard to 

 the decline this species seem hopelessly confusing. 



C. B. M. 



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All about Leaves. By the late F. G. Heath. London : Williams and 

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This little book is divided into two parts. Part I. consists of six intro- 

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The nature of much of the descriptiv^e writing may he judged from the 

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