Wild Creatures of Garden and Hedgerow. Frances Pitt, 285 pp. illustrated with 



28 excellent photographs, Dodd, Mead & Co. 

 This is another of the charming and excellent books on the living creatures 

 that survive in our Mother Country. To those of us who are in the habit of 

 reading English writers, whether poets, essayists or novelists, who deal with 

 life out-of-doors, this book is a boon for it makes us intimately acquainted 

 with many of the common forms of animals and birds which we have only 

 known by name or by tantalizing allusions. It is an ideal nature study book, 

 for it recounts in a most interesting manner the author's own experiences 

 with these little brothers of the garden and hedgerow. Whether it be the story 

 of that Mighty Atom, the common shrew and his prowess, or the fascinating 

 tale of Whiskers the little rat, reared and cherished by Old Puss, or the way 

 the Pied Wagtails brought up their birdlings, the stories have the same charm 

 of style and the same convincing quality of truthfulness and careful sympa- 

 thetic observation. The chapters of the volume are as follows : Bats, The Bank 

 Vole, Two Common Birds (song thrush and merle). Shrews, Toads and Frogs, 

 The Long-tailed Field Mouse, 'The Little Gentlemen in the Black Velvet 

 Coat' (common mole). Thieves of the Night (brown and black rats). Some 

 Garden Birds (pied wagtail, willow wren, great tit). The Hedgehog, Three 

 Common Reptiles (blind worm, adder, grass snake), The Short-tailed Field 

 Vole. The illustrations add greatly to the attractiveness of this valuable 

 book; they are engraved from very excellent photographs, which give us accu- 

 rate ideas as to the appearance of these creatures of which we have only known 

 heretofore by name. 



A Night Raid into Space. Col. J. S. F. Mackenzie, author of "Wild Flowers 



and How to Name Them at a Glance", 143 pp. with 20 illustrations. 



J. B. Lippincott Co. 



The Story of the Heavens Told in Simple Words is the sub-title of this little 



volume. The night raid consists in explaining the things seen in the heavens 



but children of tender age will find the explanations rather difficult. The book 



is better fitted for the higher grades or high school. The following are the 



subjects discussed: Solar System, Birth of the Earth; Earth's Rotation; 



The Moon; Gravity; Precession of Equinoxes; Year; Longitude, Latitude; 



Constellations; The Zodiac; The Sun; Weighing the Earth; Equation of 



Time; The Seasons; High Moon, Low Sun. The illustrations are diagrams 



to help the reader comprehend the facts of astronomy. The discussions of 



the topics are brief and clear. There are also suggestions that are helpful to 



the beginner as: "The first letter of each of the following eight words, and 



44 



