244 HE VIEW. THE RETROSPECT. 



Thirsk Natural History Society. — Botanicul Exchange Club. — The monthly 

 meeting of the Thirsk Natural History Society was held on the evening 

 of Tuesday, August 11th. Dr. George Lawson, Professor of Chemistry and 

 Natural History at Queen's College, Kingston, Canada West, was elected 

 a corresponding member. 



Mr. J. G. Baker communicated a paper, entitled ''Notes on the Spring 

 Botany of Wharfdale," in which he mentioned the discovery by himself of 

 Salix undid ata, in an indigenous condition, by the river side just above 

 Otley. He exhibited specimens of four naturalized grasses, gathered by Mr. 

 D. Carrington near a paper-mill in the neighbouroood of Bury, in Lan- 

 cashire. These are Setaria glauca, Panicum capillare, Digitaria sanguinalis, 

 and Eleusine Indica. The three first-mentioned are natives of southern 

 Europe, the other of Hindostan. 



Mr. J. H. Davies exhibited examples of Orthotrichum fastigiatum and 0. 

 tenellum from County Kildare, and of Tortula papulosa from hawthorn, 

 between Thirsk and Wordend. 



iUumii. 



The Practical Naturalist's Guide; containing Instructions for Collecting, Pre- 

 paring, and Preserving Specimens in all departments of Zoology, intended 

 for the use of students, amateurs, and travellers. By James Boyd Davies, 

 Assistant Conservator of the Natural History Museum, Edinburgh; Fellow 

 of the Boyal Physical Society ; and Member of the Yorkshire Naturalists' 

 Club. Edinburgh: Machlachlan and Stewart, 64, South Bridge. 

 London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. 1858. 



This is a small work, of about eighty pages. Its title sufficiently in- 

 dicates the nature of its contents, but I may add that it is written in an 

 agreeable style, calculated to interest as well as instruct. The instructions 

 appear exceedingly good and full, with the exception of those relating to 

 the preservation of insects, some of which are for the most part out of date, 

 and superseded by modern improvements, and many that might have been 

 given, the writer would appear not to have been aware of. 



I think Mr. O. S. Round, in his paper on the "Gait oF~i3ircIs," volume 

 viii. page 174, errs in stating that the Heron and Nightjar are the only 

 birds possessing the pectinated claw. The Cormorant and Shag both have 

 it as also the Bitterns, and, I believe, too, the Frigate Bird. — E. K. B. 



