9S 



NA TURE 



[December 2, 1897 



experiments of Brimton and Cash evidence that the 

 substances are isomeric and not identical. He finds 

 from observations made on himself that coffee is 

 decidedly antidotal to nicotine, whereas tea is not ; but 

 he admits that this circumstance does not go far towards 

 proving the essential dissimilarity of the two alkaloids. 

 By nicotine is presumably meant tobacco-smoke, which 

 is by no means the same thing. 



Mr. Crole is of opinion that the value of a tea should 

 be in direct proportion to the theine it contains. This 

 is surely no more true than that the value of a wine 

 depends upon its alcoholic strength. Indeed, the author 

 admits that what the consumer likes in tea is strength, 

 body, and delicacy of flavour, and that he does not 

 trouble himself about the theine, of which he has no 

 means of estimating the amount. As a matter of fact, 

 there is absolutely no connection between the commer- 

 cial value of tea and the quantity of theine which may 

 be present in it. 



The last chapter in the book deals with the thorny 

 question of the coolie. The Assam plantations, as well 

 as those of Ceylon, have to depend entirely upon im- 

 ported labour ; but whereas the Ceylon gardens are 

 almost wholly worked by Tamil coolies, who are free 

 labourers, those in Upper Assam are recruited under 

 Government licence, and by means of a system which, 

 it is admitted, is attended with much cruelty and de- 

 ception. There is, in consequence, considerable dis- 

 affection and much disquietude occasionally on the 

 plantations, and the local magistrates are at times 

 greatly exercised to settle the " labour troubles " which 

 now and again break out. Mr. Crole lifts the veil only 

 slightly, but it is sufficiently obvious that when disci- 

 plinary duty is to be done, the planter's lot, as well as 

 that of the coolie, is not altogether a happy one. The 

 social life on an Indian tea-garden is, perhaps, not to 

 be judged of from a Western standpoint ; but probably 

 nothing ex'actly resembling a Fagua festival in wanton 

 licence and depravity was ever seen on a Louisiana 

 plantation, even in the best (or worst) of the "good old 

 times." 



In spite of occasional grammatical lapses and faults 

 of style, Mr. Crole's book may be recommended as an 

 accurate and fairly impartial account of the present state 

 of the tea industry in our East Indian possessions. 



WILD-FO WLING. 

 A History of Fowling, being an Account of the many 

 Curious Devices by which Wild Birds are or have been 

 Captured in Different Parts of the World. By the 

 Rev. H. A. Macpherson. 8vo. Pp. liv -F 511, illustrated. 

 (Edinburgh : Douglas, 1897.) 

 A LTHOUGH the treatise before us can in no way be 



/\ 



regarded as a scientific work, yet the capture of 



wild birds entails so many accurate observations on the 

 habits and mode of life of the quarry, that such a full 

 account of all that is known on the subject must of 

 necessity throw many interesting side-lights on the 

 study of ornithology proper. And no lover of birds will 

 fail to find much matter worthy of his attention in Mr. 

 Macpherson's handsome and well illustrated volume. 

 The author appears to have spared no pains in collecting 

 NO. 1466, VOL. 57] 



material for his history, and he has been fortunate in 

 finding correspondents in all parts of the world who 

 have supplied materials relating to their own particular 

 countries which probably could not have been obtained 

 from any other sources. Indeed, the work largely 

 consists of extracts from the letters and publications 

 of such correspondents, the source of which is, however, 

 fully acknowledged both in the preface and in the text. 



The work practically has the field to itself, and is long 

 likely to remain the standard authority on the subject. 

 The number of types of curious instruments for the 

 ensnaring of birds Mr. Macpherson has succeeded in 

 recording is astonishing, and speaks well for his own 

 industry, and the interest that has been taken in the 

 subject by his numerous correspondents. Perhaps the 

 most remarkable of all is a snare employed in Borneo 

 and Tenasserim for the ensnaring of the lovely Argus 

 Pheasant. This bird, as is well known, exhibits a 

 peculiar intolerance to the presence of any foreign object 

 which interferes with free progress over its favourite 

 playground. Taking advantage of this trait, the natives 

 fix on the playground a couple of sharp bamboo knives 

 tied together in the form of an inverted V, with their 

 sharp edges downwards. Finding the knives thus fixed 

 on its own particular territory, the Argus endeavours 

 to remove them by twisting its neck round one of the 

 blades from beneath, and, in the course of its efforts to 

 overturn them, eventually manages to cut its own throat. 

 In connection with this passage, it may be mentioned 

 that the word "Argus" is omitted from the index, 

 although it is mentioned under the heading " Pheasant." 



Some limitations have necessarily had to be imposed 

 on the extent of the subject, which might well have 

 included punt-shooting and hawking, if not ordinary 

 covert-shooting and driving. For since the author 

 includes the blow-pipe and the bow-and-arrow among 

 the engines of destruction used in fowling, there is no 

 logical reason for the exclusion of the punt-gun and the 

 shot-gun. But as treatises on shooting exist by the 

 score, while hawking has also numerous works devoted 

 to its mysteries, the author seems to have exercised a 

 wise discretion in the limits he has laid down. And 

 even as it is, the work extends to a very considerable 

 bulk, although there are not a few portions where 

 considerable abridgement would have been no dis- 

 advantage. 



The author divides the implements employed in fowl- 

 ing into four main classes. Firstly, weapons of attack, 

 such as the blow-pipe, the bolas, and the bumerang ; 

 secondly, the stalking-horse, or some analogous method 

 for approaching the game without being seen ; thirdly, 

 birdlime ; and fourthly, the various kinds of snares and 

 traps, including decoys, nets, gins, &c. Having cursorily 

 glanced at the leading types of these, Mr. Macpherson 

 next gives a classified list of the birds treated of, and 

 then in the text proceeds to dilate upon the particular 

 method of capturing the members of each group or 

 species. It is in regard to the snaring of the smaller 

 birds that condensation might have been advantageously 

 resorted to, as numbers of these might perfectly well 

 have been treated en bloc, instead of having separate 

 sections devoted to them, which are only too likely to • 

 weary the great majority of readers. Indeed, from the 



