Vol. IX. 

 igio 



1 Reviews. 175 



July she has been afield to watch with tender sympathy the 

 doings of the birds, their comings and goings, their love-making 

 and nesting ; and she has seen the flower buds unfold and spread 

 their petals to the sun. Each month brings its pageant of 

 beauty, and our author has gathered of the garlands to deck 

 the Austral months from August to July. At the end of each 

 chapter are given useful lists of the flowers blooming, the birds 

 nesting and arriving and departing during the month. The 

 book is pleasant throughout, but some chapters are more happily 

 written than others. Very daintily the author describes the 

 " invitation " of a November day : — 



" It was two butterflies that did the mischief to-day. . . . While I 

 sat at breakfast on the verandah those bkie butterflies came floating by, and 

 the blouses were forgotten. In and out amongst the red tips of gum saplings 

 they flittered, living turquoise in a frame of burnished copper. A little wind, 

 too young to be rough, flittered softly after them and set the red leaves dancing 

 as it passed. Some sunbeams, seeing dancing leaves, came to join in the 

 fun, and butterflies, leaves, and sunbeams danced and sparkled together in 

 the soft, sweet breeze. It was irresistible." 



There are many other passages as good as the one quoted, 

 but the description of sweet-scented wattle in " June " is best of 

 all. Of the scientific name of this wattle, suaveolens, the author 

 says : — " The word shapes itself softly and sweetly from the lips, 

 just as the flower breaks gently and deliciously from its full, 

 round bud." That is a very beautiful sentence, a delicate, lovely 

 thought woven into words which might have been written by 

 the gentle-hearted naturalist of Selborne. 



The volume is finely illustrated with reproductions of photo- 

 graphs from nature, and is printed on art paper. — -C. B. 



[" Special Catalogue, No. i, Australian Museum, Sydney."] 

 The first part of this important and artistic work on " Nests 

 and Eggs," by Mr. A. J. North, C.M.Z.S., was noticed {Emu, i., 

 page 28) eight years ago. It has now (September, 1909) 

 reached the concluding part (iii.) of vol. ii., which is a 

 continuation of the Order Passeres, and contains the Families 

 Hirundinidce, ArtaniidcB, Sturnidie, Motacillidie, Alaiididcs 

 PittidcE, and MenuridcB, and a portion of the Order Picariae, 

 comprising the Families Capriviulgidcs, Podargidce, Coraciidce, 

 Meropidce, and Alcedmidce. The figures of eggs, which are of 

 the natural size, were reproduced by the heliotype process at the 

 Government Printing Office, Sydney, from photographs of the 

 specimens, taken under the direction of the Government Printer, 

 Mr. W. A. Gullick, and the supervision of Mr. A. E. Dyer. As 

 in the previous parts, the illustrations of birds are reproduced 

 from drawings made by the late Mr. Neville Cayley, who, 

 unfortunately, has not lived to see the splendid reproductions of 

 the birds which the part under notice contains. 



