. British birds. Birds. W\/fW5 The Gannet: a Bird with a History. By J. H. Gurney, pp. lii., 568. Many illustrations. Witherby and Co. 27s. 6d. net. Mr. J. H. Gurney's monograph forms an attractive volume of some 568 pages, copiously illustrated with maps and reproductions from photographs, diagrams, etc. There are also two coloured plates, one of which illustrates the nestHng, while the other represents the eggs of this species. The statement on the title page and repeated on pp. xv. and 368, that the figure of the young Gannet is drawn or repainted by Joseph Wolf is however due to a m
. British birds. Birds. W\/fW5 The Gannet: a Bird with a History. By J. H. Gurney, pp. lii., 568. Many illustrations. Witherby and Co. 27s. 6d. net. Mr. J. H. Gurney's monograph forms an attractive volume of some 568 pages, copiously illustrated with maps and reproductions from photographs, diagrams, etc. There are also two coloured plates, one of which illustrates the nestHng, while the other represents the eggs of this species. The statement on the title page and repeated on pp. xv. and 368, that the figure of the young Gannet is drawn or repainted by Joseph Wolf is however due to a misapprehension. It is in fact reproduced from the original w^ater-colour sketch by Dr. Cunningham and bears no trace of Wolf's master hand. The figure, reversed and re-drawn by Wolf, appeared in the Ihis for 1866, pi. i., and will repay careful comparison. The great value of Mr. Gurney's work lies in the careful investigation which the author has carried out into the history of each colony. Most of our knowledge of the birds of our own country only dates from about a century ago, and we owe a deep debt of gratitude to Dr. Cunningham, Professor Newton, and Mr. Gurney for the careful and painstaking way in which they have traced out the historical references buried in the ancient "Inventories" in the Record Office and in the works of long-forgotten writers of the fifteenth to the seventeenth century. Few ornithologists combine the qualities or training necessary for success in this kind of investigation, and we are the more grateful to Mr. Gurney for collecting and digesting this valuable material so as to make it accessible to all. Perhaps we may be allowed to add to the list of Naturahsts who have visited the Bass (p. 255) the name of Ernst Fleischer, a personal friend of the Naumanns and publisher of their works, as well as those of " Fugle " Faber. He paid his visit at the end of June, 1820, and it was from him that Naumann obtained the information which h
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