Few, if any, naturalists know more about birds than Professor
Landsborough Thomson, whose Birds : An Introduc- tion to Ornithology (Williams and Norgate, 2s.) is one of the recent additions to that excellently informative series, the "'Modern Knowledge" books. In his chapter on " Birds and Man " Professor Thomson illustrates the topsy-turvy state of things which inevitably follows on man's interference with nature, by his references to the cormorants of the Murray River, Australia. " A war of extermination was begun against these birds under the impression that they were spoiling the fi.4hing. The result, as it proved, was that the fishing grew Worse instead of better. It was then discovered that the birds fed largely on crabs, eels, and other animals which destroyed the spawn and fry of the desirable fishes." Professor Thomson's book should help to dispel other and better-known fallacies about birds which still militate against the latter's rightful inheritance of the land, air and water,
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