BOOK NOTICES 127 



various stages and conditions of plumage ; and in after years, when 

 punt and swivel-gun replaced the light 2o-bore of earlier trips, it was 

 still Mr. Millais' chief object to secure for his collection such speci- 

 mens as were necessary to render it complete. These years of hard, 

 and often dangerous, work, added to keen and constant observation 

 of the habits of fowl in all conditions of weather, and at all seasons 

 of the year, well qualify Mr. Millais to be the guide of those less 

 experienced in this most fascinating form of sport. 



Mr. Millais' book treats of Scotland as a resort of wildfowl, of 

 wildfowl-shooting on land and shore, as well by night as by day, 

 and of solitary wanderings by the sea ; nor does Colonel Hawker 

 himself depict in more glowing colours the pleasures of punt-shoot- 

 ing. Incidentally are related many adventures and some narrow 

 escapes ; for the pursuit of wildfowl in such a frail craft as a 

 gunning-punt is seldom unaccompanied by danger from without, 

 while within the boat the bursting of the big gun may not only cause 

 the "chance of a lifetime" to be lost, but will involve the risk of 

 very serious consequences to the punters. 



The illustrations are, however, a most attractive feature of the 

 book. There are numerous full-page plates, photogravures of 

 beautiful softness, in which hundreds of ducks and geese of every 

 kind that frequents our seas live again under Mr. Millais' hand. 

 To the writer at least, who has spent many a day in observing with 

 the assistance of a powerful glass the habits and the attitudes of 

 wildfowl when unsuspicious and at rest, Mr. Millais' drawings are 

 entirely satisfactory ; and if one or two of the scenes are almost 

 painful in their realism, the fortunate possessor of this book has 

 only to turn to such a restful picture as that of Loch Leven in spring 

 to realise completeness of repose. W. B. 



STUDIES SCIENTIFIC* AND SOCIAL. By Alfred Russel Wallace, 

 LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., etc. In two volumes, with numerous illus- 

 trations. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1900.) i8s.net. 



Alfred Russel Wallace is known to all who are interested in science 

 as a brilliant and original thinker, a distinguished naturalist, and a 

 great traveller. He has written a number of books, chiefly on zoo- 

 logical subjects, of extreme value, all of which have been remarkably 

 and deservedly successful. But Mr. Wallace is also the author of 

 numerous articles on various scientific topics which have appeared in 

 serial literature, such as The Nineteenth Century, The Contemporary 

 and Fortnightly Reviews, Natural Science, the journals of the Linnean 

 and Entomological Societies, etc. A selection of the more im- 

 portant of these has been carefully revised and forms the two neat 

 volumes under notice. It was, in our opinion, a happy thought to 

 rescue, as it were, these highly instructive and attractively written 

 contributions from their widely scattered original sources of publica- 

 tion, and to offer them in a collected and convenient form to the 



