22 



BOOK NOTICES- 



; — NOTES AND NEWS. 



BOOK NOTICES. 



'A List of the Diurnal Birds of Prey, with references and 

 annotations; also a record of specimens in the Norfolk 



and Norwich Museum.' By John Henry Gurney (London : Van 

 Voorst, 1884). 



This is a complete enumeration of the known species and sub-species of the order 

 Accipitres, arranged according to the author's own views on the important subject 

 of classification. In addition to its usefulness as a list, other valuable features are 

 added in the shape of references to the works in which various species are described 

 and figured, or where an account of their habits and geographical distribution may 

 be found ; and, as appendices, a series of notes on critical and little-known species. 

 The book also contains a reference under each species to the author's articles con- 

 tributed to the ' Ibis,' which is, to our mind, an honourable memento of Mr. 

 Gurney's ornithological usefulness; and a list of specimens and skeletons of the 

 group contained in the magnificent collection in the Norwich Museum. As the 

 production of a master, for Mr. Gurney is admittedly the highest authority on the 

 subject, it is indispensable to those studying this most interesting order, and should 

 find it5 place in the libraries of all who sei-iously take up ornithology as a science. 



*The Ferns of York, including also Nidderdale, and the 

 districts around Thirsk, Scarbro',- and Whitby.— By Henry 



Ibbotson. Edited by B. B. Le Tall, M. A., and Alfred R. Waller (York, 1884). 

 Under this title is published a very complete— not to say elaborate and detailed 

 — account of the ferns, lycopods, and horsetails of a considerable portion of York- 

 shire. By way of appendix is given a table of heights, and also a table of the 

 chief localities for ferns near York, indicating what species occur at each place. 

 The enumeration of species includes 31 ferns, 5 clubmosses or lycopods, i pill wort, 

 and 6 horsetails. In their preface the editors trust that their work ' will not fall 

 into the hands of any whose object it is, for " filthy lucre's sake," to root out and 

 exterminate,' as it is ' not the work of any true lover of nature so to do.' These 

 words we thoroughly endorse, looking, as we do, upon the dealer in ferns as one of 

 the curses of modem civilization. We would also hint to lovers of nature the 

 desirability not only of avoiding these gentry, but also of dealing in a sparing 

 manner with such of these beautiful objects as they may themselves chance to 

 meet with. It is not so much that the fern roots taken by any one individual 

 are of consequence in themselves, as that the recurrence of similar thoughtlessness 

 on the part of many individuals tends in the long run to thin out. or even 

 exterminate, the species of less frequent occurrence with us. The professional 

 exterminator needs to be dealt with somewhat severely, and we for our own part 

 should be heartily glad if it were found feasible to place ferns and orchids, nay 

 even primroses, &c., under legislative protection. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Members of local scientific societies who intend participating in the British 

 Association Meeting at Montreal, and who may wish to attend the Conference 

 of Representatives of Local Scientific Societies which will be arranged during the 

 same week, should send in their names at once. to Mr. W. Whitaker, 33, East 

 Park Terrace, Southampton, or — after August 12th — Reception Room, British 

 Association, Montreal. 



The following north-countrymen were elected members of the British Orni- 

 thologists' Union, at the anniversary meeting held in London last INIay : — ^Joseph 

 Whitaker, Rainworth Lodge near Mansfield ; C. J. Holdsworth, Wilmslow, 

 Cheshire ; J. G. Goodchild, of the Geological Survey ; H. H*ey\vood Jones, 

 Liverpool ; and Abel Chapman, Sunderland. 



xxx 



Dr. Jeffreys has parted with the whole of his collections of British Mollusca to the 

 United States Government, and they will find their final resting-place at Washington. 

 How a collection so indispensable to British conchologists, so rich in the types from 

 which British forms have been described, should ever have been permitted to leave 

 the country, is incomprehensible to us, and not only conchologists, but all British 



naturalists will share in the disappointment which one cannot but express. 



Naturalist, 



