NATURE 



[March i, 19 17 



and laying the land down to grass. This, of 

 course, would be disastrous. To avoid it, a guar- 

 anteed minimum price of 405. to 425, per quarter 

 for wheat should be offered for the next ten 

 years; in addition, a bonus of 2I. should be given 

 for each acre of grassland ploughed up. Pos- 

 sibly an import duty would be needed to pay the 

 cost of the guarantee, but the authors prefer not 

 to discuss the details too minutely. The Board 

 of Agriculture should take over several grass 

 farms in different parts of the country and run 

 them as demonstration farms, showing how best 

 they may be broken up and converted into arable 

 land. As minor reforms the authors suggest that 

 some of the munition works should be turned on 

 to produce agricultural machinery after the war, 

 and that special attention should be devoted to 

 the sugar-beet and potato industries, both of 

 which are capable of considerable development. 



It is gratifying that agriculture is now receiv- 

 ing so much attention, and one can only hope 

 that something will emerge to give it direction 

 and impetus. There is a growing tendency in 

 favour of definite State action, and everything is 

 gained by having the matter well discussed 

 beforehand. 



OVR BOOKSHELF. 

 Highways and Byways in Nottinghamshire. By 

 J. B. Firth. With illustrations by Frederick 

 L. Griggs. Pp. xviii + 426. (London : Mac- 

 millan and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 65. net. 

 Although the county of Nottingham cannot 

 perhaps claim a place among the most picturesque 

 of the English shires, it can nevertheless show 

 many attractive landscapes, more especially in 

 the valley of the Trent and in the splendid rem- 

 nant of the ancient forest of Sherwood. \^'hile 

 mainly concerned with the towns and villages, the 

 castles, abbeys, churches, and mansions of the 

 county and the historical associations attached 

 to them, Mr. Firth has done full justice to its 

 physical features, and has produced what is cer- 

 tainly one of the best books yet written on Nott- 

 inghamshire. 



Perhaps the best chapters are those on the 

 forest and parks of Sherwood, full of "the glamour 

 of a romantic past and the charm of living im- 

 memorial beauty. As a district of enchantment, 

 of old oaks, of noble names, of great memories, 

 of high romance, it has not its j>eer in England. 

 The New Forest may vie with it in the beauty 

 of its woodlands, but it has few associations to 

 match those of Sherwood." 



Sherwood Forest, moreover, is full of interest 

 to the naturalist, as might be expected in a region 

 of primeval woodland ; many of the constituents 

 of its fauna are, indeed, peculiar to it. Such 

 matters, however, would be out of place in a work 

 of this kind, and as a matter of fact there is not 

 a word in the book on the geology or natural 

 history of the county, unless we except the refer- 

 ence to the Nottingham crocuses and the forest 

 NO. 2470, VOL. 99] 



flies of Sherwood. In describing the Nottingham 

 meadows in spring as "ablaze with fairy gold," 

 Mr. Firth makes a curious slip, for the Notting- 

 ham crocus is, of course, the purple-flowered 

 species ! 



The book is profusely and beautifully illus- 

 trated, and the large-scale maps will be invaluable 

 to the explorer of the byways of Nottinghamshire. 



Index of Genera and Species referred to, and an 

 Index to the Plates in " The Ibis " [seventh, 

 eighth, and ninth series), 1895-1912. Edited 

 by William Lutley Sclater. Pp. 513. (British 

 Ornithologists' Union : sold by W. Wesley and 

 Son, 1916.) Price il. 12s. 6d. 



Those who study or refer to the more recent 

 volumes of the Ibis will welcome the successful 

 completion and issue of the third index of genera 

 and species referred to, and an index to the 

 plates. This covers the seventh, eighth, and ninth 

 series, or eighteen volumes, and saves a tedious 

 reference to a corresponding number of separate 

 indexes. The two previous indexes, each cover- 

 ing fifteen years, published in 1879 ^"<^ 1^97 

 respectively, contained 431 and 471 pages. The 

 present volume contains 513. This increase is 

 chiefly caused by the adoption of the trinomial 

 system of nomenclature, which necessitates 

 three references to each bird mentioned under its 

 generic, specific, and subspecific names respec- 

 tively. The compilation of this great index was 

 entrusted by the committee of the British 

 Ornithologists' Union to Mr. Henry Peavot and 

 Mr. Thomas Wells, and they are to be con- 

 gratulated upon the able manner in which they 

 have carried out their laborious task. The 

 general supervision of the work, as well as the 

 reading of the proof-sheets, a toilsome and 

 tedious business, was undertaken by Mr. W. L. 

 Sclater, the editor of the Ibis. The list of 

 plates occupies eleven pages, showing that the 

 later series of the Ibis have been well illustrated, 

 though the coloured portraits of species may be 

 relatively fewer than in the earlier volumes. 



Macmillan's Geographical Exercise Books. With 

 Questions by B. C. Wallis. I. The British 

 Isles. II. Europe. III. The British Empire. 

 IV. The Americas. V. Asia and Australasia. 

 Pp. 48 each. (London : Macmillan and Co.y 

 Ltd., 1916.) 7^. each. Keys, 2s. 6d. net each. 



The plan of these books is to enable pupils to 

 learn geography by doing something for them- 

 selves. Each left-hand page provides a clear out- 

 line map — quarto size — either suitably contoured 

 or showing political divisions, which the pupil is 

 to fill up by answering carefully graded questions 

 of a sensible kind, which are printed on the right-j 

 hand page. In the keys, intended for the usel 

 of the busy teacher, the maps are correctly filled 

 in, and the questions are annotated where neces- 

 sary with hints to the teacher on points he should 

 emphasise and amplify when discussing the 

 questions with his pupils. 



