NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 67 
distant from him, and which, as Mr. Weaver has shown in the 
present volume, possesses so many attractions for the zoologist and 
botanist. “Its richly wooded uplands, picturesque hangers and 
fertile valley’ abound,” he says, “in natural productions; and the 
enthusiastic naturalist may here find ample scope for a life-long 
study of its fauna and flora.” That Mr. Weaver has paid con- 
siderable attention to both, is evident from his remarks, which 
extend over some 260 pages, and are divided into chapters on the 
quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles, molluscs and insects which have 
been met with in the district, as well as on the timber trees, 
flowering plants, orchids, ferns, and Fungi. 
We have marked many passages in the ‘Natural History of 
Harting’ as worth noting, but space will not admit of our alluding 
to more than a few of these. 
Until very recently, the author assures us, he had been 
under the impression that the Water Vole subsisted exclusively 
on vegetables, chiefly aquatic plants and roots; and that, with 
the exception of its censurable habit of burrowing in the banks 
of the ponds, and a few unimportant pilferings at no great 
distance from its habitation, very little mischief could be justly 
laid to its charge. He has now, however, satisfied himself that 
this animal occasionally pursues and attacks young ducklings, an 
individual of this species having been caught and killed, fagrante 
delicto, and “identified beyond the possibilty of a doubt.” 
In Murray’s ‘ Handbook’ for the county it is stated that the only 
pair of Ravens in Sussex is (or was) at Parham Park. This is an 
error. Mr. Weaver asserts that “the ravenhood of Uppark is a 
time-honoured institution, the origin of which is only to be 
guessed at.” Until the spring of 1866 a pair nested annually at 
Harting, and whenever retributive justice, at the hands of a 
keeper, overtook their misdeeds, and one of the pair was shot, the 
survivor, after disappearing for a time, invariably returned with 
another partner. One year the eggs were taken, but in a very 
short time afterwards they had another nest, not two hundred 
yards from their favourite clump, and succeeded in rearing their 
young. So that it would seem to be a difficult affair to expel 
them, even if such a thing were attempted. In the early part 
of 1866, however, a furious hurricane from the south-west passed 
over the country and uprooted hundreds of trees in the park. 
Unfortunately one of the latter in its fall crashed into the very 
