178 
Mr. Henry Scherren’s attractive and compendious 
little book stands rather apart from the rest. It aims, 
and aims successfully, at giving the young naturalist 
a pleasant idea of the invertebrates as a field of study. 
It is unfortunate that a wrong adjustment of the type 
on p. 49 has obscured the grouping of the cephalopods. 
The passage reads as if the second group no less than 
the first was subdivided into eight-armed and ten- 
armed species. The confusion is increased by a further 
accident on the following page, where the name of 
‘the Pearly Nautilus’ is attributed to the figure of 
“the Paper Nautilus,’’ Argonauta argo, although it is 
NA TORE 
[ DECEMBER 24, 1903 
of technical names, but of Indian and English. Hence 
we learn that Mooweesuk is ‘‘ the coon,’’ and that 
Nemox is ‘‘ the fisher,’’ but whether the world has 
more than one coon or more than one fisher we are 
left wondering, and what in the world Mr. Long’s 
‘‘ fisher ’? may be remains a problem, one of nature’s 
riddles for Mr. Shepheard-Walwyn to solve. 
It may be said of all these books, though their merits 
are various and their individual merit unequal, that 
they are good both to give and to receive. 
TR Ree 
fic. 2.—The Leaf-Butterfly. 
Rothschild Museum. 
and Beautiful.”) 
properly given later on to the Nautilus pompilius 
figured and discussed on p. 56. Such mistakes are 
likely enough to arise so long as publishers entertain 
a superstitious dread that the popularity of a book will 
be impaired by the introduction of technical scientific 
names. Alone among our authors, Mr. Kerr has been 
allowed to set this superstition at defiance. The public 
are seemingly expected to hail with delight such names 
as Mooweesuk and Musquash, and Chigwooltz and 
Unk Wunk. Perhaps they are plez asantly resonant of 
Longfellow’s ‘ Hiawatha.’ Otherwise they are no 
easier to remember than ee Latin. Mr. Long 
understands this, and kindly supplies a glossary, not 
NO. 1782, VOL. 69| 
(From ‘‘ Nature—Curicus 
INDIAN METEOROLOGICAL MEMOIRS.* 
if T was only quite recently that there was 
noticed in these columns the volume contain- 
ing the record of rainfall of each Indian station, 
printed in such a form that the reader could at 
a glance see the monthly, yearly, or monsoon fall 
for any year up to 1900. This important volume, 
published under the direction of Sir John Eliot, 
is now followed by another equally valuable, 
embodying all the pressure observations of each 
station for the whole period of observation up 
to the end of the year 1902. These pressures are 
all reduced to 32° F. and constant gravity (lat. 
45°), but not for height above sea-level; the 
elevation of the cistern is, however, added in each 
case. 
Previous to the year 1889, the monthly means 
given are those of the mean of the ten and sixteen 
hours? monthly mean, but after that year the 
8 a.m. monthly values alone are employed. At 
the foot of each table the necessary information 
is given for converting one series into the other, 
so that no difficulty should be encountered in this 
respect. 
As an indication of the thoroughness with 
which this compilation has been attended, the 
attention of the reader may be directed to 
appendix i., which contains notes on the posi- 
tions of the observatories and the character of the 
barometric observations. Appendix ii. includes 
further important data, for here are collected for 
each station such valuable notes as makers and 
kinds of barometers employed, periods of use, 
positions, corrections to Calcutta standard, &c. 
The data included in this volume refer to 121 
q different stations, and the records in most in- 
stances date from the year 1875. 
Another memoir that has just recently been 
published is one which deals with the movements 
of the upper clouds. The observations were made 
at six stations, namely, Simla, Lahore, Jaipur, 
| Allahabad, Vizagapatam, and Madras, and were 
recorded by means of Fineman’s nephescopes, a 
: description and illustration of which are given in 
the text. 
The period of observation extended over the 
years 1895-1900, and in this volume not only is 
a monthly summary of the data for each of these 
stations inserted, but also the results of a brief dis- 
cussion, and a series of twelve plates illustrating the 
mean directions of the different classes of clouds for 
each month of the year. 
The following are among the chief results which 
have been gathered from this series of observations, 
but it is pointed out that a more extended series at 
1 Vol. xv., part i., Brief Discussion of the Cloud Observations Recorded at 
Six Stations i in India. Pp. 112. Vol. xvi.. parti., Monthly Normals of Air 
Pressure Reduced to 32° F. and Constant Gravity 45°-, Pp. 184. (Published 
under the direction of Sir John Eliot, M.A., F.R.S.. K.C.1I.E., Meteor- 
ological Reporter to the Government of India and Director-General of 
Indian Observatories.) 
