November, 1911. 



KNOWLEDGE. 



435 



\ oui)!,' Botanist." 311 pages. With a frontispiece in colour, 

 and sixt3'-five photographic ilhistrations. 7iin. X 5-in. 



(Methuen and Co. Price 5,-.) 



The title expresses tlie intention of tliis book, and tlie author 

 writes with abundant vi\acity and \igoiir. Young readers 

 will hud him to be a sympathetic and friendly adviser. For 

 their edification he has " mapped out " the birds described 

 according to their natural haunts, and this is put forward as 

 the chief feature of the book. There are chapters on the 

 birds of the garden, the country lane, the woodland, the water- 

 side and so on. Such a division is fairly useful, and can be 

 understood, but it is so far from being definite that it may be 

 doubted if it is of any great value. No animals are less circum- 

 scribed in their bounds than birds and any arbitrary division 

 is sure to require much explanation and qualification. Many 

 species vary their habitats ; this is illustrated, for instance, 

 by Mr. Westell placing the Common Curlew and the Whimbrel 

 both in the chapter on the birds of the moor and in that on 

 the sea-shore. Correctly so : and this double -placing might 

 have been extended to other birds also. The arrangement 

 chosen makes queer neighbours, e.g., the Woodlark is 

 immediately followed by the Partridge and the Quail by the 

 Stone Curlew. 



Plenty of information and vivid descriptions are given 

 of the different species, and the style of writing is 

 certainly likely to prove more attractixe to young readers 

 than to others. Occasionally the author allows himself to 

 lapse into errors such as occur when he speaks of the 

 Brambling (page 16.S) as nesting in the British Isles, and the 



Snow Bunting (page 224), as breeding in England; and the 

 statement that the Gannet breeds on '"several groups of islands 

 on our western shores'" (page 271) is a generalization that 

 requires serious qualification. On the other hand, the Fulmar 

 Petrel (page 286> is not now restricted to St. Kilda and the 

 Shetlands, having recently considerably extended its breeding 

 range, and the Little Bittern (page 243), like the Common 

 Bittern, nested in England at one time. The bird figured in 

 the coloured frontispiece by Mr. G. E. Lodge, as the "" Bittern 

 at Home"" is referred to in the text (page 242) as the Little 

 Bittern; but "it seems clearly to represent the Common 

 Bittern. The remark that one hundred and thirty Heronries 

 are still in existence (page 242) is not said to apply to England 

 only, but in Ireland more than three hundred Heronries are 

 known, and in Scotland about two hundred and twenty, at 

 present. The photographs throughout the book are ex- 

 cellent, more particularly when their necessarily small scale 

 is considered. 



The first part of the work (and it perhaps ought to have been 

 mentioned first here) is by Mr. A. R. Horwood. of Leicester 

 Museum, running to seventy-eight pages, entitled. "" Hints for 

 the Young Ornithologist,'" on observing birds, collecting, field 

 work, and so on. This is an admirable and thorough 

 production, and the bird-boy who can assimilate these hints 

 and act upon them, will approach perfection. He will 

 demonstrate that, while the interests of the British boy (even 

 in bird-nesting) are of more importance than those of the 

 British bird, yet the bird, too, has its rights, which should be 

 fully respected. „ j. ti- 



FLKillT .WD FLVlXCx 

 IN THE " ENXYCLOPAEDIA BRITAXXICA." 



The article under this heading is distinctly disappointing, 

 and although the casual reader may find some pleasure in 

 studying the in\estigations of Pettigrew. De Lucy, and others 

 into the action of birds' wings, and so on, the modern student 

 would rightly expect something more up-to-date in the latest 

 edition of a work which claims to be abreast of the times. 



Certainly there is some slight mention of the machines of 

 the Wright Brothers and Santos Dumont. together with photo- 



graphs of the Farman. Bleriot, and Roe machines, but there 

 is no description of these later, nor is there one word about 

 the modern theory of Flying Machines, which, even after 

 making allowances for the exigencies of publication of a large 

 work, must ha\e been \ery well ad\anced at the time the 

 article was written. 



In short, there is nothing in the article of the least possible 



"se. T. W. K. C. 



A METHOD (BELIEVED TO BE ORIGIXAL^ OE DI\TDIX(^z AXOxLES 

 OF 4-y OR LE.SS IXTO THREE EQUAL PARTS. 



Bv C. S. BINGLEY. F.(.M.S. 



Let B A C be the angle to be divided : 



From the point A, mark or describe the arc B C 



Bisect arc B C (D) 



From D draw the line D A 



Bisect line DA (E) 

 Draw lines E B : E C 

 Bisect lines E B ; EC 

 Draw lines D F ; D G 

 Bisect lines D F ; D (i 

 Draw lines EH: F! I 

 distances B J ; J K ; K C 

 the arc B C divided into 

 drawn from the points J 

 divide the angle B A C 

 J A K ; K A C 



(F G) 



(H II 



Continuing to J and K : the 



, will all be equal and, therefore, 



three equal parts, so that lines 



and K to A (J A; K A) will 



into three ecjual angles, B .\ J ; 



Figure 1. 



[Any inaccuracy is due 

 to error in the drawing 



