Books on African local ornithology are not common, and Mr.
C. F. Belcher's The Birds of Nyassaland (Crosby Lockwood, 15s.) supplies a systematic, annotated list which will be useful to settlers in that country. But the book possesses distinct interest for ornithologists in general, especially those concerned with the great problem of bird migration. The author, for example, observes curlew and whinihrel on October 14th and records having heard a European Cuckoo calling on October 15th. Why was cuculus ermorus making a noise at that unseasonable date ? Is it possible that the species has two breeding periods ? A cuckoo, like Habakkuk, is capable de tout. But there is also a record of many willow-warblers moving south in Nyassaland on October 24th singing and continuing to sing for a fortnight later. For the swallow (frirundo rustica) Mr. Belcher notes the earliest date of arrival as October 13th and- the latest for departure as April 26th. This swallow does not nest south of the Equator, Nyassaland, like South Africa, is very rich in brilliantly coloured shrikes, and both countries share possession of that melancholy, dull-coloured fowl, the hammerhead, about which the Bantu have so many stoties. Medicine made out of a hammerhead will cause a man and his wife to quarrel for a whole year.
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