258 



KNOWLEDGE 



[NOVEJIBER 1, 1900. 



with its spirit, they will be in a fair way to giin a practical 

 acquaintance with natural history from its best and most 

 attractive side. 



Of the two parts before us, the first deals with mammals, 

 while the second is devoted to birds, reptiles (including am- 

 phibians', and ti?hes. A third part will complete the work, 

 which is published at the verj' low price of :-!s. (id. per part. 

 The mode of treatment is to take a certain number of typical 

 animals, and to draw attention chieflj- to those structural 

 peculiarities specially connected with its mode of life; notes on 

 its relatives being added as occasion seems to require. 



To an English reader the work suffers to a certain extent 

 from having been "made in Germany.' Kot only is this 

 apparent in the cast of thought, but frequentlj- in the 

 selection of species as familiar examples which although 

 common on the Continent are unknown in the wild state 

 in Britain. As an example of this treatment from 

 a German point of view, we may quote the concluding 

 sentence from the account of the fox, which runs as follows : — 

 " The sportsman, however, pursues it inces.santly. and regards its 

 fur as a small repayment for the mauj' depredations it commits 

 among the game." 8nrely it was within the province of the 

 editor to excise or modify such a very un English statement. 

 But, quite apart from certain minor mis-statements of fact, 

 there are points where, in our opinion, editorial supervision is 

 conspicuous by its absence. For example, the author has 

 omitted all mention of such important groups as the Sirenians 

 among mammals, and the Rhynchocephalian lizard among 

 reptiles, while the classification adopted for the birds is hope- 

 lesslj- antiquated and discredited. The illustrations, which are 

 numerous, are by no means of equal merit, a few being excellent, 

 while for others scarcely any words of coudem nation are 

 adequate. Being apparently culled from several sources, they 

 do not by any means indicate the relative sizes of the animals 

 depicted ; the badger, for example, being drawn of considerably 

 larger size than the Indian rhinoceros. On the whole, while 

 there is undoubtedly much to commend, we think that the 

 publishers would have been better advised had they made 

 arrangements with a competent English naturalist to write an 

 entirely new work. 



"ORKilN AXD CHAP,.\fTi:R OF THE BRITISH PEOPLE.'' By 



Nottidge C. Macnamara. (Smith, Elder & Co.) 6s. The most 

 casual observer cannot but have been impressed by the pro- 

 nounced differences in the types of men found in different 

 parts of the British Isles. The characteristic Welshman is 

 manifestly a different kind of man from the average Englishman, 

 and nobody would mistake a native from south-west Ireland for 

 a lowland Scotchman. The object of Mr. Macnamara's little 

 book is to account for these differences, and to trace their 

 causes. He believes that the present peoples of Great Britain 

 are derived from an original Iberian stock, or to use his own 

 words "the Iberians formed the primary stock from which the 

 existing inhabitants of Great Britain, and the West of Europe 



are derived it was this race, and only this race, who 



inhabited our islands at the close of the palajolithic period." 

 These Iberians were a short, small-boned people, having long 

 skull.s and comelj' features. The next addition to the inhabi- 

 tants of onr islands -was from Western Asia, in the early 

 neolithic period, of a branch of the old Aryan race. These tall 

 strangers were an energetic war-like people, who formed the 

 Cro-Magnon race. Then came the dolman-building people. 

 After tracing in this way the origin of the peoples of the 

 British Isles the author takes the constituent countries in 

 succession, beginning with England, and discusses the racial 

 effects of immigrations which have occurred in historical times. 

 He concludes with a consideration of the development of man's 

 intellectual faculties and the effect of residence in cities on the 

 racial qualities of individuals. The book contains thirty-three 

 illustrations, and provides a clear account of a very interesting 

 subject. 



" El.KMENT.AP.Y LeS.so.>;S IN El-ECTRICITV .\ND MaHNETISM." 



By S.l'. Thompson, K.R.s., etc. (Macmillan.) Illustrated. 4.s. 6d. 

 The bibliograiiliieal note attached to this work will doubtless 

 exercise much influence, running back as it does to the year 

 l>>8!,and mentioning no less than three reprints in many of 

 the years which have elapsed since that date. The preface, too, 

 is well worth attention, and we note that Professor Thompson 

 takes an early opportunity of complaining of ''The piracy, 



covert as well as open, to which, since its appearance in 18S1, 

 the book has been subjected. " In this section of the work we 

 find, too, an accuratelj' terse synopsis of the progress made in 

 matters electrical and magnetic during the past thirty j-ears. 

 The first chapter deals with frictional electricity, and here we 

 are bound to say that we can find nothing new, while many of 

 the illu.strations and diagrams are antique. In ('hapter 2, 

 Section 154 — on magnetic maps— strikes us as being the most 

 useful ; wliile Section 159 — magnetic storms — is disappointing. 

 A detailed description of all well-known primary batteries 

 follows. This portion of the book, by the way, contains a state- 

 ment of Ohm's law, an interpolation which seems quaint. The 

 latter part of Chapter 3, dealing with " Physical and Physio- 

 logical Effects of the Current,'' may be highly commended (even 

 to the notice of students of a larger growth, though the book is 

 termed " Elementary ''), for it is not, we believe, many who 

 could define such terms as '' electric osmose." The collection 

 of notes upon the electrical properties of flame and hot air is 

 interesting, as also those relating to thunderstorms and similar 

 phenomena. On pp. .3.')4-5 we note that the definition of per- 

 meability is somewhat lengthy. Indeed, it take.s our author 



some time to explain M jj Finally (since this work deals 

 very thoroughly with the elements of electricity and magnetism), 

 it follows that it contains much which has been written again 

 and again. The problems and exercises with which the work 

 concludes are particularly comprehensive, and should be helpful 

 alike to teacher and pupil. The index, too, is good. 



" The Story of Bird-Life.'' By W. P. Pycraft. ("Xewnes' 

 Library of L'seful Stories.) Illustrated. Is. Mr. Pycraft is 

 to be congratulated in having compressed into the very small 

 compass of this little book a very fair general notion of the 

 main features of bird-life. Considerable discrimination is 

 shown in the selection of material, the author having chosen 

 good subjects, and interesting and, for the most part, well- 

 established facts. Moreover, Jlr. Pycraft writes in a simple 

 and attractive way, so that the book is very readable and inte- 

 resting, and contains a deal of instruction in an unobtrusive 

 form. 



"IX BiRD-LAXD ■WITH FlELD-OLASS AND CAMERA." By 



Oliver G. Pike. (Fisher Unwin.) (is. Illustrated. This is a 

 pleasant little book describing simple country sights within the 

 province of all who have learnt to use their eyes. The author 

 treats chiefly of birds, and his scenes and anecdotes are mo.stly 

 derived from the country about the north of London, although 

 a few chapters are devoted to the Norfolk Broads. Mr. Pike is 

 an ardent bird photograjiher, and many of his photographs 

 reproduced in the book are excellent. Some of them, however, 

 are rather in the nature of puzzle ])ictures, and it is questionable 

 if everyone will eventually find the bird. Photographs of wild 

 birds or nests are certainly of little use for purposes of identi- 

 fication, but a method of showing at a glance the correct pro- 

 portions would be a distinct gain. Turn, for instance, to the 

 photographs on pages 24.5 and 2(35 of the present book. The 

 one is of a sedge warbler's nest, the other of a nest of ^Montague's 

 harrier, but who can tell by an examination of these photo- 

 graphs that the egg of the harrier is some two-and a-half times 

 the size of that of the sedge warbler ? (.)n the other hand, in 

 the beautiful photograph, forming the frontispiece to the volume, 

 of a garden warbler on its nest, we get a very good idea of the 

 relative size of the bird. This is evidently because some 

 gooseberr}' leaves are shown in line with the bird, and everyone 

 I knows approximately the size of a gooseberry leaf, and so can 

 gauge the size of the bird. But it is not often possible in a 

 photogi'aph from life to show side by side with the bird or egg 

 so well known an object as a gooseberry leaf. However, with so 

 many enthusiasts now working at bird photograjihy, we do not 

 despair of a solution to this difficulty of proportions. ^Mr. Pike's 

 grammar is not always of the best, and his rather bald literary 

 style denotes a young writer, but he leads us in the open, and 

 evidently tells us exactly what he has seen himself : which, 

 after all, is more valuable in a book of this character than 

 flowing phrases and polished periods. The author was fortunate 

 in finding in Norfolk a number of bearded tits to shoot at with 

 his camera, and we are glad indeed to have this further evidence 

 of the jiresence of this rare bird in the country. Ornithologists 

 will also be interested in what Mr. Pike has to say about the 

 habits of the moorhen. 



