I9I9. Reviews. 105 



REVIEWS. 



MARINE ZOOLOGY FOR THE YOUNG. 



The Seashore ; its Inhabitants and how to know them. By Forster Robson. 

 London : Holden & Hardingham, Ltd. Pp. 112. Price, is. 6d. net. 



In this little book the author seeks to interest children in the animals 

 and plants of the seashore by describing briefly a selection of the commoner 

 forms, some of which are represented by roughly-executed drawings. 

 The author's structural and systematic statements are often open to 

 serious objection ; for example, the cuttles are treated as a group distinct 

 from the mollusca, while the ship-barnacle is said to have a " long neck 

 . . . attached to the wood by a sucker-like mouth." 



USEFUL BIRDS. 



Birds Beneficial to Agriculture. By F. W. Frohawk. London, 

 British Museum (Nat. Hist.). Economic Series No. 9. Pp. vi -|- .48. 

 Price, 2s. 



This pamphlet has been written to elucidate an exhibit of useful birds 

 in the central hall of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. 

 The species are well-selected, the qualification now generally recognised as 

 to the "beneficial" nature of such birds as the Rook and the Starling being 

 frankly pointed out. There are twenty-two plates, admirably reproduced 

 from drawings made by Mr. Frohawk. More use might have been pro- 

 fitably made of recent memoirs on this very important subject, and the 

 absence of a bibliography impairs the usefulness of the attractive little 

 book. 



NOTES. 



BOTANY. 



Vaccinium Myrtillus on Raths. 



The raths, even yet so often met with in various parts of Ireland, have 

 received much attention from archaeologists. Their relation to the flora 

 of the country, in one respect, is apparently not unworthy of investigation. 

 On the raths I examined all over Co. Cork I have generally found the 

 Whortleberry {Vaccinium Myrtillus) growing — sometimes in great pro- 

 fusion, sometimes on close inspection, a few attenuated specimens only 

 will be found to survive. Very frequently the plant will be found nowhere 

 else in the neighbourhood. I have occasionally found the site of a rath 

 which had been levelled to the ground, marked by the growth of the 

 Whortleberry. Of course it is well known that the plant is a calcifuge 

 species, and therefore need not be looked for on limestone soil. 



James Noonan. 



Cork. 



