1878.] Notices of Books. 95 
“ Vegetation and Climate,” by Mr. Richmond Leigh, is a 
sketch of botanical geography. 
Mr. W. T. Black’s “ Natural History of the Grey-wing and 
Red-wing Partridges of South Africa ” is a small but useful con- 
tribution to ornithological knowledge; The author recommends 
the “ red-wing” for domestication. 
Proceedings of the Bristol N aturalists’ Society . New Series. 
Vol. i., Part 3. 1875-6. London : Williams and Norgate. 
Bristol : Kerslave and Co. 
That the activity of the provincial scientific societies has 
increased of late years in its amount and has improved in its 
quality is very generally admitted, and must be received as a 
hopeful sign of the times. The Bristol Naturalists’ Society has 
four sections — the botanical, entomological, geological, and 
zoological, the latter of which is at present in abeyance. Of 
the members eleven have contributed papers printed in the 
Society’s Proceedings, a proportion which we should like to see 
increased. Concerning the state of the Museum there is no 
information, and the augmentations to the Library appear to 
consist to a great extent of the Reports and Transactions of 
various Societies, English and foreign. The papers which 
appear in the “ Proceedings ” are — “ Geology of the Bristol 
District,” by W. W. Stoddart, F.G.S. ; “ On Prof. Renvier’s 
Geological Nomenclature,” by E. B. Tawney, F.G.S. ; “ Birds 
of the Bristol District,” by E. Wheeler; “ Age of the Canning- 
ton Park Limestone,” by E. B. Tawney; “ Insedt Anatomy,” 
by E. H. Fripp, M.D., who likewise communicates three papers 
on Microscopy; “Notes on Carboniferous Encrinites from 
Clifton and Lancashire,” by J. G. Grenfell, F.G.S. ; and u An 
Account of the Rainfall at Clifton for 1875,” by G. F. Burder, M.D. 
History of the American Bison (Bison Americanus). By J. A. 
Allen. Washington : Government Printing-Office. 
This valuable monograph derives additional importance from 
the fadt that the American bison — or buffalo, as it is generally 
called in the United States — is doomed to early extinction. 
Perhaps, indeed, the American Government may protedt a rem- 
nant upon some specially reserved plot of land as an interesting 
reminiscence of the past, just as has been done by the Emperor 
of Russia in the case of the kindred species, the European bison, 
or aurochs ( Bison bonasus s. Europeans). Mr. Allen gives a full 
