Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/453

Rh

is a very welcome addition to our county faunistic handbooks. "The whole area of Shropshire is only about 1340 square miles, yet within this compass we have plateaus and plains, hills and vales, boggy flats and heathery moors, cornlands and pastures, wooded slopes and barren crags, meres and ponds, streams big and little, and—most important of all—the river Severn." Sea- and shore-birds are attracted by the meres, and the still reaches of the Severn, which river again is followed in its course by many birds—as Sandpipers—and fishes. Among the mammals enumerated, "the Wolf, the Roebuck, and the Wild Boar have been long extinct, and the Pine Marten disappeared this century; while the Polecat is on the verge of extinction"; the Wild Ox is also included, though this animal is now of antiquarian interest. Of birds 250 species are enumerated, of which 87 are classed as residents, 34 as summer migrants, 17 birds of passage, 40 winter migrants, and 72 as waifs or accidental visitors. Six reptiles (one of which, the Smooth Snake (Colonella lævis) is included, at present, on very slight authority); seven Amphibians, twenty-nine Fishes,—of which the Sea Trout (Salmo trutta) is now added by courtesy,—and three Lampreys (Lowest Vertebrates) complete the subject-matter of the volume.

One of the most interesting features of this book is to be found in the lives and portraits of Shropshire naturalists, which include such well-known names as Eyton, Kocke, and Houghton. Charles Darwin was also a Salopian, but his work was confined to no county and limited to no country. Another excellent idea is the printing of the names of resident birds in capitals, and of visitors and casual wanderers in ordinary type. To show the contrast, however, different coloured printing would greatly facili-