May i8, 1916] 



NATURE 



239 



lengthy presentation, as, in James's phrase, "the 

 elaboration of the obvious." The author says of 

 Freud : " Of course, the claims of that school to 

 originality and to the apparent unveiling of the 

 causation of psychoneurosis are entirely unjusti- 

 fied." But he does not attempt except by repeti- 

 tion of phrase to disprove the conception, e.g., of 

 das Unbeunisste as suppressed unconscious sex- 

 complexes. 



A. E. Crawley. 



AN INDIAN BIRD CALENDAR.^ 

 A Bird Calendar for Northern India. By Douglas 



Dewar. Pp. 211. (London : W. Thacker and 



Co., 1916.) Price 65. 

 VTR. DEWAR is well known to the .Anglo- 

 -^''J- Indian public, and to a good many people 

 over here, as the writer of a number of popular 

 books, which, with a lively and trenchant style, 

 combine a great deal of original observation and 

 a ver}- iconoclastic tendency towards the tenets of 

 biological orthodoxy. The present book shows 

 that he is well capable of handling his favourite 

 subject in quite a different way; controversial 

 matters are left on one side, and the style, though 

 eminently readable and full of descriptions which 

 bring the natural surroundings of the birds vividly 

 before the mind's eye, is much more matter-of- 

 fact as a rule than in the author's previous writ- 

 ings. 



There is, indeed, so much to record in Indian 

 bird-life from month to month, that to do it the 

 justice that Mr. Dewar does leaves very little 

 room for anything but the statement of ornitho- 

 logical events. It need scarcely be said that 

 Anglo-Indian naturalists will appreciate a book 

 like this, which, in a compact and handy form, 

 puts before them the leading events of the ornitho- 

 logical year in northern India — the courtship, 

 breeding, and plumage changes of the various 

 species, and the arrival and departure of the 

 numerous migrants ; not only of visitors from the 

 colder climates from the north, but of birds which 

 move about locally in India, from the hills to the 

 plains, and from one province to another, a 

 limited form of migration which has been far less 

 studied than the more sensational movements 

 familiar in temperate climates. This will, how- 

 ever, no doubt in time be found to throw much 

 light on the larger and, to most people, more 

 familiar migrations; and for this reason, if forno 

 other, the book deserves careful study by ornitho- 

 logists not directly concerned with the Indian 

 fauna. 



The birds of India, and of the Xorth-west Pro- 

 i vinces especially, are indeed particularly well 

 [ suited as a study to those ornithologists who aim 

 at knowledge rnore scientific than can possibl}- be 

 attained by a study of European, or, indeed, 

 Palaearctic, birds" only. The study is not too dis- 

 couraging, for many of the birds are the same, 

 though as a rule these naturally are mostly winter 

 migrants; and numerous soecies exist belonging 



NO. 2429, VOL. 97] 



to European groups, though very distinct from 

 our forms. 



These, again, are differently distributed propor- 

 tionally; Mr. Dewar has, for instance, several 

 species of familiar cuckoos, kingfishers, and 

 starlings — mynahs in Hindustani — to tell us about, 

 as opposed to the single species of these families 

 which we have in England, while of the thrushes 

 and finches, such abundant birds over here, there 

 is little for him to say. Notable, too, is the 

 abundance and variety of the birds of prey and 

 waterfowl, now so rare, comparatively, both in 

 individuals and species, over most of Europe and 

 especially in Britain ; their continued abundance 

 ' in India, even in the cultivated portions, showing 

 ! that it is the aggressiveness of the European 

 i towards wild life, rather than the exigencies of 

 cultivation, that has reduced them here. F. F. 



OUR BOOKSHELF. 



Engineering Geology. By Profs. H. Ries and 



T. L. Watson. Second edition, enlarged. 



Pp. xxvii + 722. (New York: J. Wilej- and 



Sons, Inc., 191 5.) Price 17s. net. 

 The issue of a second edition less than eighteen 

 months after the first would seem to indicate that 

 this book is meeting with a favourable reception. 

 The new volume is larger than the earlier by some 

 50 pages, the addition consisting of an eighteenth 

 and concluding chapter on historical geology. 

 Since the authors attempt to deal, in this limited 

 space, with the nature and use of fossils, 

 the classification of geological time, the char- 

 acters and distribution in North America of the 

 several systems, and their economic products, the 

 treatment is necessarily very brief and the descrip- 

 tions meagre. Nevertheless, the addition of the 

 chapter is a decided improvement, inasmuch as it 

 provides, in what might be the only geological 

 text-book of an engineering student, some informa- 

 tion, at least, as to the principles, methods, and 

 outstanding facts of stratigraphy. 



The first seventeen chapters remain practically 

 as in the original edition. They deal in order 

 with rock-forming minerals and rocks, rock- 

 structures and metamorphism, rock-weathering 

 and soil formation, the accumulation movements 

 and effects of overground and underground 

 waters, and with the principal geological materials 

 used by the civil engineer or sought by the mining 

 engineer. In view of the importance, to these 

 engineers, of a thorough grasp of the meaning, 

 methods of construction, and utility of geological 

 maps and sections, the treatment of this part of 

 the subject seems inadequate. In future editions 

 it might be expanded with advantage. 



The list of references to literature at the end 

 of each chapter has been brought up to date, and 

 will prove helpful when further information on 

 special subjects is desired. 



The book is probably the best available exposi- 

 tion of geology from the engineerinsr point of 

 view. C. G. C. 



