Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/313

Rh title as "Our Indigenous Flora as Food-plants," we meet with facts illustrating the change of diet animals can sustain under necessity, and our author has seen sheep eating fronds of Asplenium viride, Trichomanes, and Adiantum nigrum, when he considers the ferns were supplying the place of trefoils "on our cultivated fields." In 1883 and 1884 he also observed that all ferns in a certain district were "occasionally eaten by quadrupeds."

In a paper on the habits and instinct of the Rook, we obtain a few local facts relative to the visitation of birds as modified by man's action on the environment. In this part of Scotland drainage has brought about the disappearance of the Snipe, whilst other birds "more inclined to wade into water" have in some cases resorted to moors. The Pied Wagtail has been seen by Mr. Wilson several times inland during the winter season, and the Lapwing has of late years shown a similar tendency. The "Great Curlew," according to our author, only found its way into the moors of Aberdeenshire some forty years ago. The Common Gull, Larus canus, came to the moors of Aberdeen a few summers ago, and nested there.

In conclusion we may remark that, if many of the records are not told for the first time, the volume abounds with the natural observations made by a shrewd Scottish yeoman and lover of natural science, and should be interesting alike to those who manage an estate or cultivate a farm. It would, however, be improved by the supervision of a good "reader," for we do not all write with the majesty of Milton or the charm of Macaulay, and style has not only been known to float a bad book, but also to ruin a good one.