1 20 The h'ish Naturalist. May, 



they attack. Only about fifty pages are devoted to the " Garden friends," 

 but we are glad to see here due acknowledgment paid to the services of 

 beasts, birds, and even entomophagous fungi, as well as to those of 

 predaceous insects. The practical directions for destroying the various 

 injurious species are concise and business-like. It is of interest to gather 

 from a popular continental work like this, how many of the species most 

 injurious to the cultivator vary in different countries. For example, we 

 find insects most markedly destructive with us — such as the Cabbage- 

 root Maggot {Phorbia brassicce), and the Black Vine Weevil {OtiorryncJms 

 «^/(:a///j-)— passed over in a few lines. The illustrations are reproduced 

 so as to give a delicate, artistic effect, now and then lacking iu clearness, 

 but always pleasing. 



G. H. C. 



BIRDS' NESTS. 



Birds' Nests; an Introduction to the Science of CaIloIog:y. 



By Chari^es Dixon, Author of " Rural Bird-Life," &c. With illus- 

 trations by A. T. Blwes. L,ondon : Grant Richards, 1902. 



That prolific writer, Mr. Charles Dixon, has turned his attention to 

 " Caliology " — the scientific study of birds' nests. His latest ornitholo- 

 gical work aims not only at giving some account of the various types of 

 nests found in nature, with the rationale of each type, but also at supply- 

 ing a philosophical explanation of the nature of the nest-building habit. 

 The volume is so well stored with facts that it cannot fail to be recog- 

 nised as a valuable addition to the literature of ornithology. The illus- 

 trations, too, are interesting, though we are left in regrettable uncertainty 

 as to how far we can rely on their accuracy ; for Mr. Dixon himself finds 

 it necessary to point out that the nest of the Magnificent Suubird 

 {^thopyga magnified) is quite incorrectly drawn, the artist having repre* 

 sented it as pendulous, which it is not. When, however, we pass from 

 ascertained facts to the argumentative and speculative parts of the book, 

 it must be said that the impression produced is disappointing. Mr. 

 Dixon does not appear to have thought his theories out, There is an 

 excess of high-sounding language, a superabundance of scornful epithets 

 for the popular belief in a " nest-building instinct," which Mr. Dixon 

 rejects as a "superstition," a "prejudice," "not supported by a single 

 particle of fact," &c., &c. Yet we feel bound to say that the facts 

 appealed to as "conclusively disproving" this belief seem to us extremely 

 inconclusive, the arguments unconvincing, and the counter-explanation 

 put forward b}' Mr. Dixon himself so far from satisfactory that we 

 scarcely hesitate to pronounce it absolutely untenable. 



Briefly, Mr. Dixon's theory is that a young bird inherits from its 

 ancestors no instinctive knowledge of the way to build a nest, but that 

 it acquires that knowledge for itself, chiefly iu two ways ; — (i) by exer* 



