Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/454

424 tate the aim. Other assistance is rendered by the letter B attached to a name, denoting "bred in Shropshire," while with migrants the average dates of arrival and departure are also given below the names. Many photographic plates of groups of excellently "set-up" mammals and birds give a distinctive charm to one of those volumes which are generally procured with avidity by students and lovers of our British fauna.

the pages of this magazine there has appeared, from time to time, a series of papers by Mr. Phillips on the Birds of Breconshire. These were reprinted in 1882 for private circulation, and the same re-written and considerably enlarged it is now our pleasure to peruse and notice. "Breconshire is not a large county, and is so well known that it needs but a slight description. It embraces among its general features, in a marked degree, mountain and moor, valley and hill; it has one large lake, Llangorse, with numerous mountain tarns, and is drained by the Usk and partly by the Wye and their tributaries. Yet with all these advantages of nature the ornithology of the county is not so varied as might be supposed."

The Kite (Milvus regalis) up to the year 1889 had increased considerably, but in that spring many were killed, three or four close to the town. Even now, however (1899), a few pairs still breed, and are protected as far as possible in the county. The Marsh Harrier (Circus æruginosus), which was formerly common on the hills between the 'Storey Arms' and Merthyr, is now, unfortunately, supposed to be extinct. The Raven is generally considered to live to an old age, but it is well to obtain actual facts, and Mr. Phillips is able to refer to a bird which must have been fifty years old when it was killed by a dog. Severe cold causes strange messmates, and here we read of a Sparrowhawk roosting close by some Bantams in a thick holly-tree in the dead of winter; in similar weather a Jay was found feeding with the poultry in an aviary, where it must have pushed itself between the wires to get to the food. The varieties of food that birds