Welsh Journals

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Natural History Photography: ed. D. M. Turner Ettlinger: Academic Press: £ 8.80. 'In view of the enormous scope of nature photography, and the multitude of developments in recent years', it was felt that no less than eighteen specialist authors should contribute to this volume. Among these are David and Katie Urry, the experts on birds in flight, who did much of their early work on Skomer Island. Each author has illustrated his chapter with his own work and the photographs are, as one would expect, superb. Each chapter proclaims the principle that the welfare of the subject is more important than the photograph, and attention is drawn to a Nature Photographers' Code of Practice produced by the Association of Natural History Photographic Societies. The Buzzard: Colin T. Tubbs: David & Charles: £ 4.75. The author estimates that there are up to 10,000 pairs of Buzzards in Britain, at a density of 1-2 per square mile. The attempted genocide of the rabbit in 1954 affected the buzzard population only temporarily. The bird's versatility as a predator, and its capacity for spanning a wide range of food sources enable it to survive, even in competition with other predators. Because of its catholicity of diet, it has not been much affected by organochlorine pesticides. The persecution of man, with pole-trap and gun, however, it could not withstand. In 1894 only six pairs survived on the Pembrokeshire cliffs, but by 1949 its numbers had been restored to 120 pairs. The book contains much information about the rise and fall of the Buzzard, its social behaviour, its breeding biology and population ecology. Scarce Migrant Birds in Britain and Ireland: J. T. R. Sharrock: T. & A. D. Poyser: £ 3.80. Dr. Sharrock has published, in book form, the series of papers on scarce migrants which appeared in British Birds (1969-73). As one of 'The Ten Rare Men', that is a member of the British Birds Rarities Committee, and honorary secretary of the British Ornithologists' Union Record Committee and of the Rare Breeding Birds Panel, he is an expert in his field, but he readily acknowledges his debt to county bird recorders and bird report editors, and to bird observatories. He deals with 24 scarce migrants, being those between the common and the very rare, which occur annually, or nearly so, in Britain and Ireland. There are photographs of most of the listed birds, and a wide range of maps showing distribution by counties and by regions. British Seals: H. R. Hewer: Collins (New Naturalist): £ 3.50. It is only in the last thirty years or so that the private lives of the British seals have been investigated; until then they were mysterious things, neither fish nor beast, freak, undine, spirits of drowned sailors. Professor Hewer gave the last two decades of his life to the study of seals. He pays tribute to J. L. Davies "who started the 'seal movement' after the second war" by his accounts of Grey Seal breeding on Ramsey Island. This is a systematic study of the Grey Seal and the Common Seal, although there