62 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



from the ordinary text-book of zoology, and we trust that it may 

 meet with the recognition it well deserves. It is well got up, pro- 

 fusely illustrated, and extremely reasonable in price, namely IDS. 6d. 



MEMORIES OF THE MONTHS. Second Series. By the Right 

 Hon. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., M.P., F.R.S. (London : Edward 

 Arnold, 1900.) 



In the " Annals " for 1898 (pp. 63-64) we noticed the first series of 

 the "Memories" and commended them for their charming style, beauty 

 of illustration, and their certainty to please. Such has also been the 

 judgment of the public, for the book is now quite out of print. A 

 second series, not a second edition, has been called for ; and though it 

 is not always easy to follow up one success by another, yet the 

 author may assuredly claim, in our opinion, to have done so. This 

 second series of short essays on sundry natural history subjects, the 

 associations of a country life, various forms of sport, and kindred 

 topics, are most pleasantly and philosophically written, and are in 

 every way equal to their much-appreciated prodrome. There is just 

 one quality in the book that we do not appreciate, namely, its want 

 of uniformity in size and style with the first series. 



THE NATURAL HISTORY OF A HIGHLAND PARISH (Ardclach, 

 Nairnshire). By Robert Thomson. (Nairn : George Bain, 

 1900.) 



Ardclach, the author tells us, means "The Stony Ridge." Mr. 

 Thomson, however, has clothed its nakedness with its floral wealth, 

 and enlivened its dreariness as implied by its name by his 

 observations on its mammals, birds, and insects. Although the 

 writer is no botanist, yet in perusing Mr. Thomson's chapters on the 

 flora, he felt almost as enthusiastic as their author, so much did 

 they appeal to him, and so much did he appreciate the spirit in 

 which they were penned. The chapters on the fauna treat of all 

 the mammals, birds, and reptiles of the parish ; while appendices are 

 added on the butterflies and moths, and the flies. There are also 

 chapters devoted to place-names, and on the general characteristics 

 of the parish. The writer has known the author for some years, and 

 he doubts if it would be easy to find a more admirable teacher than 

 Mr. Thomson : forty years a schoolmaster, astronomer, naturalist, 

 topographer, and student of place-names. 



THE STRUCTURE AND LIFE-HISTORY OF THE HARLEQUIN FLY 

 (Chironomus). By L. C. Miall, F.R.S., and A. R. Hammond, F.L.S. 

 (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1900, 8vo, 191 pp., i pi. and 129 

 figs.) 



The authors of this volume have already published a joint study 

 of the genus Chironomus ; but their previous work was devoted only 

 to the development of the head of the imago, while here we find an 

 exhaustive treatise on the insect in all its stages. Though dealing 



