Welsh Journals

as further inland. Lack would explain this by the fact that swifts do not like a cool wet windy climate, although they can fly so fast (perhaps 60 miles an hour) that they can and do fly around rain- storms and keep dry. They follow the sunlight all day. Their winged insect food is not so abundant or freely accessible on sunlesss days and in windy treeless zones. In cold weather the young swift, like the young shearwater (there are many similarities in the structure and lives of these two birds), is able to fast for several days during which it conserves its body reserves in a natural torpor at a lowered body temperature. A fascinating life-history, which the author was able to unravel by studying swifts at their nests in boxes set up inside the tower of University Museum, Oxford. Among other facts, he confirms that swifts sleep or doze on the wing, that is, that some (especially homeless and non-breeding) swifts spend the night in the air. For this purpose some swifts evidently go out over the sea for the night hours. But on this point he is seeking information, and members who see swifts flying out to sea in the evening should let Dr. Lack know (care of the Edward Grey Institute, Botanic Garden, Oxford). R.M.L. PEMBROKESHIRE. A REGIONAL BOOK. R. M. LOCKLEY, Hale, London. 1957. 18s. This book is strongly to be recommended as a fascinating introduction not only to the history and folklore, but also to the fauna and flora of an ancient county of Wales. In this record of a living coastwise area of surpassing interest Mr. Lockley has happily captured in picture and prose the spirit of an age-old (but soon to be changing we fear) culture and way of life. For how long the Estuary of Milford Haven will continue to provide feeding grounds for Waders, Ducks, Divers and Seabirds' is problematical even the immemorial courses of migrants may be diverted. To such base uses are even National Parks subverted when bureaucracy has ousted the native lords of this soil who were themselves a part of the natural order, and who preserved un- spoilt their inherited acres. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes ? The author is to be congratulated upon the thin but nec- essarily opaque veil of secrecy which he has drawn as a protective mantle over the precise habitats of certain of the rarer species. Most visitors love and protect wild life, but there is still to be found the loutish cad whose vicious instinct is to kill and destroy and to whom nothing is sacred except himself. Magnificent illustrations, a map and the clear type with wide margins always associated with Regional Books, together with a useful index renders Pembrokeshire a memorable contribution towards the literature of West Wales. To naturalists, it is of course of inestimable value and it should be made compulsory reading for all Planners and others in whom is rested a little (brief we hope) authority. D. le C. C.