165 



Life by the Sea-Shore. An Introduction to Natural History. 

 By Marion Newbigin, D.Sc, 7| x 5 in., vii + 344 pages, 

 93 figures in the text. London, 1901 : Swan Sonnenschein 

 and Co. Price 35. 6c?. net. 



The natural history of the sea-shore has already formed the 

 subject of a very large number of publications ; but, owing to the 

 fascinating character of shore-hunting and the almost inexhaustible 

 variety of the material to be dealt with, there always seems to be 

 room for yet another book. At any rate the present work can 

 safely claim to have justified its appearance for it is an exceedingly 

 well written and, as far as it goes, a very accurate account of the 

 majority of the commoner animals found between tide-marks, and 

 it can very well serve, as suggested by the sub-title, as an intro- 

 duction to natural history. The essentially microscopic forms — 

 the Protozoa — are not dealt with, but naturally many very 

 minute forms, such as some of the Hydrozoa, Bristle-worms, 

 larval Crustacea, Nudibranchs, and Tunicates receive some 

 attention. The Nudibranchs or Sea-slugs have a chapter all to 

 themselves, and they fully deserve it, although they are usually 

 dismissed with a very short notice. One characteristic feature of 

 the book is that at the end of each chapter keys or tables are given 

 to assist the rapid identification of the species mentioned therein. 

 And in connection with the selection of the species, it has been 

 the author's aim to make the descriptions sufficiently detailed to 

 ensure the identification of actual specimens, and not to refer to 

 a large number of animals merely by name. The first two 

 chapters and the last are devoted to the consideration of some 

 general points connected with the study of the littoral fauna, such 

 as the general characteristics of shore animals, the methods to be 

 employed in their collection and study, and their distribution and 

 relationships. A remark in the second.chapter, to the effect that 

 the shore naturalist should interest himself in the animals he 

 finds if he cannot find those in which he is interested, might well 

 be taken to heart by others than rock-pool hunters. It might 

 even be mecUtated upon by those who, during pond-dipping 

 excursions, pass hasty judgments upon various ponds, to the 

 effect that this one is no good because there are no rare Rotifers 

 in it, or the other is useless because it only contains " common " 

 water-fleas, and so on. 



