tHE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 155 



the Maoris, hints on the pronunciation of Maori names, summaries 

 of the chapters, and a good index, help to complete the volume, 

 and make up a book which should be on every nature student's 

 bookshelf. 



Nature Studies in Australia. By VVm. Gillies, M.A., and 

 Robert Hall, C.M.Z.S., F.L.S. Melbourne : Whitcombe and 

 Tombs Ltd. 1903- Price 2s. 



This little volume of rather more than 300 pages, to which Mr. 

 Frank Tate, M.A., Director of Education, contributes an excellent 

 introduction, has been j)ublished " as a reader designed to 

 interest the senior boys and girls of elementary schools." Seeing 

 that so little has been written in the way of popular books on 

 Australian Natural History, we feel sure that older folks cannot 

 fail to be interested and instructed by perusing its brightly written 

 and illustrated pages, learning thereby something of the why and 

 wherefore of the life around them. As may be expected from the 

 sympathies of one of the authors, the book deals largely with 

 bird-life in its different aspects, but the lower forms of life, such 

 as reptiles, marine creatures, and insects, have not been over- 

 looked. The chapters are written in the conversational style, by 

 which the authors have been enabled to lay greater stress on certain 

 points. The illustrations, which number about eighty-five, include 

 a coloured frontispiece of the heads of robins, showing the 

 "recognition marks." The final chapter, headed "Method in 

 Nature Study," shows how to apply the lessons to everyday 

 observations. Fifteen pages of notes, really an extended glossary, 

 should prove useful to the young student. The most novel 

 feature in the volume is a "Nature Study Calendar for Victoria," 

 in which has been attempted for the first time a monthly record 

 of the first appearance, &c., of birds, insects, other animals, and 

 flowers. As Victoria presents several marked differences of climate, 

 the records are arranged according to the divisions adopted by 

 the late Baron von Mueller in part ii. of his " Key to the System 

 of Victorian Plants," and the authors are to be congratulated on 

 the clearness of the scheme, which cannot fail to arouse a greater 

 interest in the study of nature, and in future editions of the work 

 can be improved and extended. A list of the common names of 

 Victorian birds and a copious index complete the work, which 

 we trust will be adopted for the senior classes of public and 

 private schools throughout Victoria. 



Honours. — At the twentieth congress of the American 

 Ornithologists' Union held in Washington, D.C., in November, 

 1902, Mr. A. J. North, C.M.Z.S., Ornithologist of the Australian 

 Museum, Sydney, was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the 

 Union. 



