262 The Field Naturalist 's Quarterly August 



Open-Air Studies in Bird Life. By Charles Dixon. Illustrated 

 by Charles Whymper. London : Griffin & Co. Price 7s. 6d. 

 The author of this useful volume is by no means unknown to those 

 interested in ornithology, and his previous publications on Rural Bird 

 Life, the Migration of Birds, and other subjects of like character are 

 doubtless familiar to our readers. In the present book Mr. Dixon's 

 object is to " furnish a popular introduction to the study of ornithology 

 by visits to British birds in their homes." Almost every bird indigen- 

 ous to our isles has been included, and each is noticed under the special 

 haunt to which it seems specially attached. The method is a good one, 

 and serves to associate in the mind of the reader those birds which are 

 to be found under the same conditions. At the same time classification 

 is not neglected, so that at least two aspects of the birds are dealt with. 

 But this is by no means all that is given, for many important points in 

 structure and physiology are carefully and accurately stated. Our 

 author has wisely restricted himself simply to giving sufficient infor- 

 mation relating to the birds of our country to serve as an "introduction 

 to a wider study of a very fascinating subject," and in our opinion he 

 has formed an accurate estimate of what such an introduction should 

 comprise. Mr Dixon states that the missel-thrush feeds "not in any 

 way specially upon the berries of the mistletoe, as is popularly sup- 

 posed," with which statement we concur. The present writer lived for 

 years in the midst of mistletoe and in a locality where the missel-thrush 

 was common, and he could never satisfy himself that this bird had any 

 preference whatever for these berries. There are many observations 

 we should like to quote from this book, but space forbids. Our readers 

 will enjoy finding them for themselves. 



The Primrose and Darwinism. By A Field Naturalist. London : 

 Grant Richards. Price 6s. net. 

 The author of this work, which was published last year, decided to 

 remain anonymous, doubtless for reasons which he considers good. 

 At the same time we cannot but think that a writer who sets out to 

 convince his readers that a vast number of Darwin's experiments led 

 him to fallacious conclusions would have carried more weight in the 

 scientific world if he had added his name. The impression left on our 

 mind after reading the book is that our author considers that Darwin 

 attempted to make his observations square with his own theories, that 

 the observations themselves were of little or no value, that Darwin him- 

 self refused to see things which would have led him to other con- 

 clusions, and that on the whole his work on fertilisation is something 

 worse than useless except to promote further research. Our author 

 even doubts that cross-fertilisation is a great part of nature's scheme, 

 and concludes that Darwin's method of investigation " not only misled 

 himself as to facts of nature, but his conclusions drawn from such 

 methods of investigation have misled for an entire generation those of 

 his ablest followers, who, without questioning, accepted his method and 

 conclusions." Our readers who are interested in the question can take 



