70 NATURAL SCIENCE. July, 



pages more than in the volume for 1892, and numerous pubhcations, 

 both British and foreign, have been added to the Hsts over and above 

 those given and indexed last year. The price of the book is absurdly 

 low in comparison to its value, and there can be no doubt that at 

 present at all events its publication is undertaken at a considerable 

 loss. As before, Miss E. Hetherington and her able staff of women 

 assistants are responsible for the compilation of the index, and the 

 result is worthy of the highest praise. 



The first 58 pages are devoted to a list of magazines and other 

 periodicals arranged under countries in four columns, giving the title 

 of the book, the editor, publisher, and explanatory remarks. The 

 remaining 150 pages give a minute and detailed index to the subjects 

 contained in the publications listed. To turn to one entry in this 

 index — Birds — we find no less than 55 articles dealing with the 

 subject were published in magazines during 1893. ^^ may be quite 

 true to say that these are of no particular value and might well be 

 left to perish unrecorded ; but, on the other hand, we have the 

 inestimable boon of being able to find out if such and such an article 

 has been written without the wearisome task of searching high and 

 low for it. Turning to another subject quite outside our own, we find 

 under Musicians a record of no less than 100 names of which are 

 given particulars of more or less interest. 



We cannot of course enforce the purchase of this book, much as 

 we should like to do so, but we hope few readers of Natural Science 

 will refuse to place upon their shelves a volume so valuable to those 

 who wish to keep themselves in touch with general subjects. With 

 an increased list of subscribers, moreover, comes a corresponding 

 increase in usefulness, for a return of the expenditure will allow of 

 the inclusion of periodicals at present omitted solely for reasons of 

 expense. 



The Country Month by Month. 



Somewhat late in the day a copy has been sent us of F. A. 

 Knight's " By Moorland and Sea" (Elliot Stock, 5s.) ; a re-issue of 

 articles that have appeared in various publications. Mr. Knight is 

 pre-eminently an out-door naturalist, and his bright and brief little 

 chapters, some of them perfect prose poems, are redolent' of the fresh 

 air, and are a delightful change after wading through some particularly 

 dry piece of laboratory investigation. Gossipy writings of this class 

 do not, as a rule, come within our province at all; but one chapter, 

 " The Birds'-Nester," is a genuine piece of field natural history, and 

 reveals the true naturalist. It is evident in every line that the writer 

 is a careful observer in close touch with Nature, who feels to the full 

 the truth (as he expresses it), " Happy the man in whose life some 

 room is found to watch the happier children of the air." Some of the 

 process illustrations, too, are strikingly good. 



Another work of the same class is now being issued in monthly 

 parts by Bliss, Sands & Foster, under the title of " The Country 

 Month by Month." It is written not for regular collectors or professed 

 naturalists, but for the crowd of intelligent " general readers" who 

 are now tempted into the country by cheap excursion trains or the 

 cycle. W^e have received the parts for April and May. Each 

 consists of a short essay on the month, followed by chapters on the 

 plants and animals that may be seen in it. The essay is composed 

 in the main of a series of quotations from poets, good, bad, and 



