160 SOME NEW BOOKS [February 



appointing enactment, the Ground Game Act. All needful information can be 

 easily got from Mr. Harting's book, which is well indexed. The author has 

 also much to tell us about rabbits attacking stoats, carrying their young, 

 swimming across water, barking and killing trees, and so on, but space forbids 

 our entering on these topics. A list is given of ornamental shrubs for under- 

 cover which are asserted to be "rabbit proof," and which "will thrive under 

 the drip of trees." This is invaluable, and all sportsmen should see that this 

 volume is put into the hands of their foresters and gamekeepers. 



Mr. Harting enlarges, we think unnecessarily, on rabbits biting. Few 

 sportsmen are ever bitten, for the simple reason that they do not handle many 

 maimed rabbits. It is otherwise with gamekeepers, who handle thousands in 

 taking them out of traps, and we have more than once seen them severely 

 bitten. Again, it is asserted that tame rabbits will not burrow. This is 

 erroneous, for we once turned out a black and white doe in a sandy burrow, 

 where for several years she reared many litters. When a ferret was put in, 

 she always bolted at once, and on two occasions turned and attacked her 

 pursuer when it came outside. Being tame, she never attempted to run far 

 away, and was often witness to her progeny bolting from the ferret, and being 

 shot. 



On the price of rabbits Mr. Harting says — " Trapped or snared rabbits 

 should realise, say, 2s. 9d a couple ; shot ones, 2s. 8d. a coujjle." We should 

 much like to know where these prices can be got, as we can undertake to send 

 heavy weekly consignments. 



In referring to stoats and weasels, we fear Mr. Harting panders to senti- 

 mentalists, for he " would not ruthlessly trap and kill every weasel and stoat on 

 the warren," and he faithfully reproduces the old story, which we had regarded 

 as exploded, about " improving the stock by killing the weakly ones." As a 

 corroboration of his statements he refers to the vole plague of 1892, and says— 

 " Beyond doubt the weasel is the natural enemy of field-mice, and no greater 

 mistake can be made than to destroy the former when the latter are numerous, 

 or threatening to become so." As with lemmings in other countries, there were 

 plagues of voles long before the days of game preservation or the trapping of 

 weasels, and we venture to affirm that these plagues will occur again. The 

 voles attracted all kinds of enemies : short-eared owls gathered and bred in 

 their midst, and "blackening trains" of rooks found abundant food. As in 

 previous visitations, the plague suddenly disappeared as unaccountably as it 

 came, and we fear that Mr. Harting's weasel theory will not hold water. 



In treating of long netting, after describing the process of setting the net, 

 Mr. Harting says : " One or more helpers, as the length of net may require, stays 

 back to extricate the rabbits from the net, or to knock them on the head with a 

 stick as they try to force their way through." Nothing can demonstrate more 

 clearly that the author has never seen the long net used, and we fear his infor- 

 mation has been accpiired from an unauthentic source. 



We have noticed these points, but it would be gross injustice to suggest 

 that they outweigh, or even overshadow, the value of the work. It is a 

 delightful book, and one of genuine usefulness. The illustrations are carefully 

 done, and the whole form of the book does credit to the publishers. 



Tom Speedy. 



A STUDENT'S ASTRONOMY. 



A New Astronomy. By Prof. David P. Todd, M.A. Ph.D. 8vo, pp. 480, 

 with figures. New York, Cincinnati, Chicago : American Book 

 Company, 1898. Price 7s. 6d. 



Prof. Todd is to be congratulated on having given to astronomical science 

 a most valuable book, the need of which has certainly been felt by many 

 teachers of elementary astronomy. There is nothing that tends so much to 



