3i8 The Scottish Naturalist. 



NEW BOOKS. 



The Rev. J. Stevenson, of Glamis, so well knovi^n for his investigations 

 amongst fungi, announces a work on the ' Fungi of Scotland,' to be published 

 by subscription, if he meets with sufficient encouragement, Mr Stevenson 

 purposes giving a complete list of the Scottish fungi, with their distribution, 

 &c., as far as known, and descriptions of the species new to science which 

 have recently been discovered. The distribution will be illustrated by a 

 descriptive map, and as the price is only 7s. 6d., we hope that the author 

 will get support enough to enable him to carry out his intention. Names 

 may be sent to the Rev. J. Stevenson, Glamis, Forfarshire. 



Dr B. Carrington (assisted by Mr W. II.. Pearson) has recently published 

 a first fasciculus of dried specimens of British Hepaticse, including about sixty 

 species, many of them Scottish. The name of Dr Carrington is sufficient to 

 indicate the value of the collection \ and many botanists will, no doubt, be 

 glad to avail themselves of this opportunity of obtaining authentic specimens 

 of an interesting though rather neglected class of plants. 



Hemipterologists will gladly welcome the appearance of the first volume of 

 Dr O. M. Renter's ' Hemiptera Gymnocerata Europse.' Europe, in a wider 

 sense than the merely geographical, forms the field of Dr Renter's labours, 

 and the species are described with the care and , perspicuity which are emi- 

 nently characteristic of the author. The work is printed at Helsingfors by 

 the Societe Finlandaise de Literature, and is illustrated with eight plates 

 (seven of them coloured), whose execution leaves nothing to be desired. 

 The present volume is devoted to the division Plagiognatharia of the sub- 

 family Capsina, and its issue will mark an era in the study of the European 

 Hemiptera. The succeeding volumes will be anxiously looked for. 



Rook-literature. — Mr Yarrell, in his account of the Rook, first published 

 in 1839, says that the experiment of extirpating the species "was made a 

 few years ago in a northern county," but that "the farmers were obliged to 

 reinstate the Rooks to save their crops. The subject was facetiously com- 

 mented upon in a pamphlet by James Stuart Menteath, Esq. of Closeburn. " 

 I have tried in vain to see this pamphlet, and I shall be extremely obliged to 

 any readers of ' The Scottish Naturalist ' who will lend me a copy, or at 

 least inform me where I can find one. — Alfred Newton. 



Magdalene College, Cambridge. 



