Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/521

Rh the Chough and the Jackdaw are reported by Mr. Ussher as not apparently molesting one another, "still, the increase of the Jackdaw has been observed in many places to coincide with the diminution of the red-billed bird." The Crested Lark has been once obtained in Ireland, and it is interesting to read that it was shot by the well-known war correspondent, Sir W.H. Russell, then a boy of fifteen, who under the letters "W.R." communicated the fact to the 'Dublin Penny Journal' in 1836. It will probably not be known to all that the Stone-Curlew is in Ireland a "rare casual visitor, chiefly in winter, but never in summer," and that it has only been obtained in ten cases. Many interesting facts and suggestions are given respecting the Guillemot. Mr. Ussher remarks that as incubation proceeds the eggs become so completely covered with filth that he has seen many cemented thereby to the rock, which may account for the exaggerated statement that the bird has the power of gluing them to the rock to keep them from falling off. He also suggests that the beautiful varieties of colouring in the eggs "must help each bird to distinguish her eggs from others lying near, until they become all stained and soiled."

We could, but must not, extract other notes from this history of Irish birds, which is, and will long remain, the standard work on the subject. It is a story well told, and a treatise well written, embellished with the reproduction of some well-selected photographs, and with a coloured plate exhibiting variations in the tints and markings of the eggs of the Peregrine Falcon.

purpose and scope of this publication is distinctly enunciated by the author. It is "to give such description and details as may enable anyone who becomes interested in these beautiful birds to recognise such species as he will see in collections on ornamental waters, like that of St. James's Park, or find on sale with the dealers, and to treat them successfully if he decides to take up the Fancy on his own account."