264 The Field Naturalist's Quarterly August 



make the apperception of a " distant " object and to complete the 

 reference ; but in regard to adult experience the sensation of adjust- 

 ment of the eye-mechanism is one of the best guides to judging 

 distances. In aesthetics, again, we suggest that the agreeableness of 

 certain divisions of a number of equal verticals (Chart 23) is due 

 rather to experience, the act of preperceiving a line divided as a sword 

 is between blade and handle ; or again as suggested by the fore- 

 shortening of perspective in upright objects subdivided equally and 

 viewed from a near standpoint below. Speculatively, we would suggest 

 that " exploitation " of an appearance " from left to right and back to 

 left" may not be preferred by Orientals, who are accustomed to reading 

 from right to left and from bottom to top. But this is hypercriticism. 



Out of a book written with uniform skill it is difficult to particular- 

 ise ; but no one could read the sections on the eye, vision (binocular, 

 monocular, and stereoscopic), and illusions of sight without deriving 

 pleasure and profit. We heartily commend the work. 



Contemporary Natural Science Periodicals. 



Knowledge has been even more than usually interesting to the 

 natural history student during the last quarter, and we would parti- 

 cularly draw attention to the July number, in which the article entitled 

 " Familiar British Wild Flowers " (R. Lloyd Praeger) is the fourth in- 

 stalment of that series. The Composite are the flowers dealt with last. 

 Mr. Stebbing continues his papers on "The Nobodies," the sea-insects ; 

 while the column of " Notes " contains an interesting summary of the 

 evidence on the question, " Do Whales Sleep ? " The astronomical part 

 of the journal is, as usual, prominent. 



Nature Study for June contains the abstract of a paper by Mr. 

 Webster, Secretary of the St. Helens Naturalists' Society, on the 

 " Folklore of Insects," as well as the conclusion of E. W. S wanton's 

 paper on " Colour Changes and Structural Modifications." 



Bird Notes and News devotes its July issue to the trade in 

 " osprey " plumes, which it describes under the heading, " The Biography 

 of a Lie." The lie is, of course, the assertion made by some dealers 

 that the plumes they sell are all artificial and manufactured out of 

 material other than egret feathers. These articles do good, as we 

 recently had a letter from a lady who said that in consequence of some- 

 thing she had read in the columns of the F. N. Q. she would not wear 

 " osprey " plumes in future. We think it is quite certain that if the 

 matter were more generally understood, the fashion would die out in 

 time to save the birds from extinction. 



The American Naturalist for March contains a most instructive 

 article from the pen of G. H. Parker on the "Sense of Hearing in 



