Abstract
R. M. LOCKLEY is one of the best-known of British naturaliststs. He is an accurate observer, and his prose is so good that any book of his is pleasant to read, even by those who have little knowledge of the subjects, on which he writes. In "The Cinnamon Bird" he tells of an experiment made of taking a dozer marked canaries from captivity to his small, wind-swept island of Skokholm in the Irish Sea, a home of shearwaters and an alighting place of many migrants. Here the small birds were gradually given full liberty, and the record of their lives on the island during the spring, summer and autumn is set down. By September the population of canaries had in creased, and the young birds flew over the island in little flocks or 'charms', happy and carefree. But in September came disaster, for the island is visited each year by numbers of sparrow hawks, and these gradually thinned the numbers of the canaries until those which were not caught and housed once more had all been killed. One of the canaries had a brief mating with a migrating goldfinch, which next morning left the island. She laid four eggs, but only one hatched. The hybrid was a cock, a beautiful and strong bird, with a rich song differing slightly from a canary's song. One of the most moving passages in the book describes the son's furious pursuit of the hawk which killed his mother. There are four excel lent illustrations in colour by C. F. Tunnicliffe, which are admirably reproduced, and the printing and appearance of the book generally are unusually good. In this short notice I have been able only to touch on the book's contents, which will be read with appreciation by R. M. Lockley's wide circle of admirers.
The Cinnamon Bird
By R. M. Lockley. Pp. 79+4 plates. (London: Staples Press, Ltd., 1948.) 8s. 6d. net.
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GORDON, S. The Cinnamon Bird. Nature 163, 467 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163467a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163467a0