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Book Notice. 



A NATIONAL FOLK-LORE MUSEUM. 



Mr. Henry Balfour's Presidential Address to the Museums' 

 Association, delivered at Maidstone on July 13th, is printed 

 in the ' Museums' Journal ' for July. In this Mr. Balfour, 

 whose excellent work at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford is 

 well known, advocates the formation of a National Folk Lore 

 Museum. He points out that in the Guildhall Museum, London ; 

 the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries in Edinburgh, and in 

 some other museums, more or less definite attention is paid to- 

 obsolete and even obsolescent industries, customs and appli- 

 ances in the British Isles. The British Museum, however, is 

 everything except British as far as ethnology is concerned. 

 There is reticence in dealing with our own nation which is 

 specially noteworthy in view of the name which is applied to 

 this great institution. We trust that something tangible may 

 be the result of Mr. Balfour's appeal 







My Life Among the Wild Birds in Spain, by Willoughby Verner. Bale^ 

 Sons & Danielsson. 468 pp., 21/- net. 



This book contains a chatty record of the cveme de la creme of bird- 

 nesting. Colonel Verner, as his writings elsewhere have shown, has been 

 unusually fortunate in his frequent visits to Spain, and with pluck and 

 perseverance, has visited and photographed the nesting sites of a whole 

 host of vara aves ; he has certainly been in an ornithologist's paradise. 

 He has the further ability of recording his reminiscences in a pleasant style, 

 and with the aid of pencil and camera has produced a volume the 

 only drawback to which we can find is that it is perhaps a little expensive 

 for the ordinary lover of birds. In reading the narrative, it is pleasant to 

 find that the Colonel is by no means a nest-robber, and he is exceedingly 

 bitter in his remarks against those systematic collectors of eggs who, 

 largely for pecuniary gain, bring disrepute to the genuine ornithologist. 

 Amongst the illustrations are scores that will appeal to the British naturalist,, 

 those of the Great Bustard, Booted Eagle, Black Kite, Red Kite, Goshawk 

 and Crane being unusually good. The photographs of eggs and nests that 

 are reproduced include several that most English collectors will hardly ever 

 hope to see in nature. There are many interesting experiences related in this 

 volume, which we should like to relate, did space permit ; but we must 

 refer our readers to the book itself. There is one, however, which we must 

 mention. A nest of a Bonelli's Eagle, after a heavy climb, was found to 

 contain but one egg. It was taken, and a tame goose's egg was substituted. 

 Soon after, a naturalist, ' who never collected eggs, but only photographed 

 them,' came to this identical old-world place, in search of ' copy.' Some 

 little time after. Col. Verner received an issue of ' Country Life,' containing 

 a most graphic account of the identical nest, and with the apparent purpose 

 of ' for all time recording his ignorance of Eagles and their eggs, the un- 

 fortunate writer went into the most minute details as to how the egg he 

 had so gallantly obtained was " white and somewhat pointed at both ends," 

 in fact, an unmistakable tame goose's egg.' As a contrast. Col. Verner 

 gives a photograph of the egg that was in the nest before the goose's egg was 

 substituted. So that even in the wilds of Spain, miles away from ' any- 

 where,' one should really see the bird lay the egg before being certain it is 

 genuine ! In Yorkshire this same trick has been served on more than one 

 occasion, and in all probability at the present time coloured pigeon, etc., eggs 

 are reposing in collectors' cabinets with altogether different labels on them. 



Naturalist 



