87 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



An Outline of the Natural History of our Shores. By 

 Joseph Sinel. 7 j x 5. xvi. -f 345 pages. 123 illustrations. 

 London, 190G. Swan, Sonnenschein & Co., Ltd. Price 7s. (V. 



A popularly written handbook, dealing in a practical and 

 reasonably scientific manner with the commoner denizens of 

 our shores, is sure to find favour with a large number of those 

 intelligent observers who make a visit to the seaside an oppor- 

 tunity for the observation of a few of the myriad wonders of 

 the ocean. Commencing with the lowest forms in the scale of 

 animal life, the author takes us step by step through all the 

 more important groups, touching upon many points of interest 

 concerning some of the commoner species included in each of 

 them. Last, but not least, are some general chapters upon such 

 subjects as Coloration, Mimicry, Collecting, Preserving, and the 

 Making of Microscopic Preparations, and so forth. The marine 

 aquarium at home is dealt with in a brief but very practical 

 manner, and the tyro is not asked to believe, as is often the 

 case, that the keeping of sea-beasts in captivity is a matter of 

 supreme simplicity. We are rather surprised to find that no 

 mention is made of that very simple and effective piece of 

 apparatus, particularly well adapted to the aeration of small 

 tanks, which consists of a slender tube carrying water, which, 

 in its course, entraps large bubbles of air and delivers them 

 in rapid succession at the bottom of the aquarium. This 

 apparatus may be seen in operation at the Horniman Museum, 

 at Forest Hill ; and I believe that our member, Mr. W. Gardner, 

 who has actually succeeded in breeding sea-anemones in small 

 glass vessels, adopts a similar device. 



Generally speaking, the illustrations are good ; but the plate 

 of Foraminifera has, unfortunately, failed to properly reproduce 

 the reference numbers, and a. few of the photographs, although 

 perhaps taken under trying conditions, fail to convey a really 

 satisfactory idea of the object represented — such, for example, as 

 fig. 88, and the egg-cases in fig. 89. In one or two instances 

 the lists of objects represented in the plates might have received 

 a little more attention in the matter of spelling. 



The author seems to have tripped in his description of a 



