THE FAUNA OF NORTH WALES4
IT is always a pleasure to select from the numerous feeble works on natural history which now pour from the publishing * China in Legend and Story. By C. Campbell Brown. London: Oliphant, Anderson, and Ferrier. Ds. 65. net .J t The Vertebrate Fauna of North Wales. By H. B. Forrest. With 29 Plates and a Map. London: Witherby and Co. [ITe. 6d. net.] louses a book on which well-deserved praise may be bestowed. Mr. Forrest, who has already written The Fauna of Shropshire, may be congratulated on having successfully accomplished a useful and laborious work. He claims that much which he has 13ono is "pioneer work," and that, as usual, birds had previously received more adequate treatment than mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes, which are all extremely well dealt with in the present volume. Mr. Forrest has been helped by a large staff of contributors, and he has spent seven years in collecting and digesting the data and material for hie book. His printed authorities date back to G-iraldus Cambrensis .and John Leland, and come down to recent issues of the Field and local newspapers. Perhaps, after a little breathing-space, Mr. Forrest may turn to South Wales, on which a companion volume is needed. An introductory chapter deals with the physical features of Anglesey, Carnarvon, Denbigh, Flint, Merioneth, and Montgomery. Whilst East Anglia receives a regular influx of rare migratory birds from the Continent, but few of these reach Wales, and fewer still Ireland. Many birds, such as the tree-pipit, which are common in Wales, are unknown in Ireland. On the other hand, the South of Ireland receives a stream of migrants which does not reach Wales. It is otherwise with the migrations of cetaceans and fishes, for a comparison of .the fauna of the Eastern and Western seas shows that the Welsh waters are richer in species. Of the more sedentary animals, we have records of forty-one mammals, of which eight became extinct in historic and fifteen more in prehistoric times. The marten and the polecat survive in the wilder parts of Carnarvon and Merioneth. There is an interesting account of the wild white cattle which were introduced into Vaynol Park some forty years ago. The reptiles are only represented by four species, for though the sand lizard (L. agilis) has been record d, no recent example has been found. The amphibians number eix, and include the natterjack and the palmated newt. The list of fish is particularly interesting. Though the fish fauna is rich in species and numbers, the watering-places of North Wales procure supplies from Grimsby. Mr. Forrest has -devoted particular attention to Welsh names of animals and 'their meanings. It is remarkable, as he points out, that the Welsh have in very many cases fixed on different characters from the English in naming a species. Thus the " goatsucker," -or nightjar (Caprimulgus) is called Troellwr or Nyddwr, meaning "spinner," from the note which is like the sound of :a spinning-wheel. Local natural histories like the present, of which the field naturalists of the British Islands have special reason to be proud, generally devote much attention to the movements of birds. Mr. Forrest has a chapter on bird- migration routes which may be summed up in a few words. In spring the earliest arrivals migrate northwards, chiefly along the West Coast ; but there are subsidiary routes up the Severn and Wye Valleys, and some species arrive overland from South-Eastern England. In autumn fewer birds travel south by Wales than by the Eastern counties of England. In winter omigratory movements take place westwards, and thence to Ireland. The plates comprise some photographs of Welsh naturalists and views of places.
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