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Abstract

THIS is a good type of all that a hand-book on local natural history ought to be from a naturalist's point of view. While it appears to be as exhaustive as any two workers can make it of the fauna of which it treats, its honest tale is not only plainly but also briefly told. Inother words, we are spared those poor attempts at poetical prose and all the allied sins which seem so easily to beset the field naturalist. This is another way of saying that the work has been undertaken and executed in a purely scientific spirit. After a few introductory chapters on the geography, topography, physical aspects, &c., of the area, the authors proceed to give a systematic catalogue of the entire vertebrate fauna, beginning with the mammals and ending with the fish. In this catalogue everything relating to distribution, habits, &c., which can possibly be of any interest is likewise set forth in terse phraseology. The whole catalogue covers between 200 and 300 octavo pages, and is everywhere indicative of painstaking labour. Several well-executed plates embellish the volume, which throughout displays good taste as well as sound judgment. We are, therefore, particularly glad to read in their preface that the writers intend this to constitute “the first volume of a series, which, unlike most local faunas, lays aside to a great extent political boundaries, and is marked out by others, much more natural, such as water sheds.” We trust that this first volume will meet with the recognition which it deserves; and in any case congratulate the writers on having so successfully accomplished so extensive and valuable a piece of work.

A Vertebrate Fauna of Sutherland, Caithness, and West Cromarty.

By J. A. Harvie-Brown T. E. Buckley. (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1887.)