no The Irish NaUiralisi. May, 



Most of the volume is devoted to a full discussion of the nature and 

 origin of the termite society, the various castes, the modes of feeding 

 and nest-bulding, and the "guests" and "messmates" of the termite 

 communities. The "workers" and " soldiers"— undergoing one moult 

 less than the hinged sexual forms — are regarded as permanently modified 

 nymphal stages. In the chapter on feeding the clear account of the 

 "mushroom gardens" of the termites is especially welcome. In a 

 section of the useful and injurious effects of the termites with regard to 

 man, Dr. Escherich discusses the suggestion — familiar to English 

 readers through the picturesque writings of Henry Drummond — that 

 termites in tropical countries play the same beneficial part in the economy 

 of nature that earthworms perform in temperate regions. While ad- 

 mitting that there is ground for this idea, Dr. Escherich points out that 

 the earthen excrement of termites — in contrast to that of earthworms — 

 is very hard and largely divested of its organic nutriment. This con- 

 sideration was apparently not overlooked by Drummond, who wrote 

 '^though the white ant may itself have no power in the first instance for 

 creating soil, as a denuding and transporting agent its ministry can 

 scarcely be exaggerated," 



All students of insects must feel in debt to Dr. Escherich, for he has 

 collected in a readily assessible form the cream of what is known about 

 termites, and his extensive bibliography directs us to any further infor- 

 mation that we ma}' need. 



G. H. C. 



A NEEDED WARNINa. 



The Care of Natural lYI on u merits, with special reference to 

 Great Britain and Germany. By H. Conwentz. Cambridge Univer- 

 sity Press, 1909. Pp. 155. 10 illustrations. Price 2s. 6r/. 



This timely volume is an extended version of a lecture delivered by 

 the author, who is a Prussian State Commissioner for the care of natural 

 monuments, before the British Association at Leicester, in 1907. By 

 instances taken from all parts of the world, we learn how much "natural 

 monuments " — beautiful landscapes, waterfalls, rare plants and animals, 

 woodlands, and fens — need to be preserved from the devastating hand of 

 the company promoter, advertiser, shooter, and collector ; while we are 

 also told what is being done to protect those natural possessions of ours 

 which are still available for being protected. It is gratifying to find 

 approving mention of the protection afforded to nesting Terns at Mala- 

 liide by the Irish vSociety for the Protection of Birds, and of the estab- 

 lishment of the Lambay "sanctuary" by the Hon. Cecil Baring. The 

 author, who is clearly in close touch with naturalists, both on the 

 Continent and in these islands, suggests that work of the kind ad- 

 vocated might be taken up with benefit by the Vegetation Survey 

 Committee and by the British Association. Why not also by the British 



Government ? 



G. H. C. 



