March 13, 1902] 



NA TURE 



437 



observers are agreed, viz. that they have much more 

 power in their households than is generally supposed, and 

 that their status is universally recognised by all heads of 

 families who desire to lead quiet lives. Mr. Parker 

 quotes the case of a Captain Ch'en as an illustration of 

 common official domestic affairs. 



" He "(Captain Ch'cn) "had a wife — /<jwt> of course — 

 who ruled the roast in that watchful and relentless way in 

 which capable French women ifiin certain age rule a busy 

 cafe. Captain Ch'cn bought, sold, and e.xchanged concu- 

 bines freely, this freedom evidently being the common basis 

 upon which agreeable terms had been made between him- 

 self and his wife. . . . Like a sensible man, he always showed 

 formal respect to his wife ; and, although he never took her 

 to the various forts, camps, and war junks in or on which 

 he was from time to time employed for months at a stretch, 

 he always consulted her ; left the purse strings in her 

 charge ; and gave her feminine command over all the 

 concubines and 'slaveys' not actually with him." 



Mr. Parker evidently has the gift of tongues, and finds 

 It equally easy to communicate with the natives of Peking, 

 the Hakka people of Canton, and the speakers of half a 

 dozen or more dialects throughout the Empire. In the 

 present work we have the results of this polyglot ability, 

 and in a succession of short chapters, or notes, he throws 

 countless side-lights on the kaleidoscopic aspects of the 

 Chinese question and the social life of the people. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



The Home-Life of Wild Birds. By F. H. Herrick. 



Pp. xix -I- 148. (New York and London : G. P. 



Putnam's Sons, 1901.) Price \os. bd. net. 

 In this attractive and beautifully illustrated volume the 

 author lays claim to having invented a new method of 

 studying and photographing birds in their native haunts ; 

 and he is certainly to be congratulated on the success of 

 his efforts. Although his method of working is some- 

 what different, Mr. Herrick may be said to have done for 

 some of the commoner birds of North America what has 

 been effected by the Messrs. Kearton for those of Britain ; 

 and higher praise than this it would be difficult to bestow. 

 To the English reader the book will be especially welcome, 

 as throwing a flood of light on the habits of species with 

 which he is necessarily unfamiliar. Among the most 

 successful of the author's efforts are his photographs of 

 cedar-birds, or waxwings, with their nests and young, 

 which illustrate in full detail the mode in which the nest- 

 lings are fed and tended by their parents, and the curious 

 postures assumed by the latter in the course of their 

 duties. The attention devoted by these birds to their 

 offspring is well indicated in the following passage, where 

 it is stated that, on one occasion, "with half-spread wings 

 and with back to the sun the mother protected her little 

 ones for a full hour from the broiling sun, while her mate 

 came repeatedly and handed out the cherries." 



Instead of photographing from a long distance, or with 

 a camera placed near the nest and worked by the observer 

 from a distance by means of a string, the plan adopted 

 by the author is to bring the nest and its surroundings 

 within a short distance of the observer, who is himself 

 concealed. If the nest be situated on a branch at a con- 

 siderable height from the ground, the bough is carefully 

 cut off and fixed, with the nest, in its natural position 

 near the ground in a good light. If, on the other hand, 

 the nesting site be a tussock of grass in thick coppice, 

 the whole mass is dug out and transplanted to the open. 

 The photographer takes his station in a green tent, 

 through a hole in the canvas of which the camera can be 

 brought to bear on the nest and its surroundings. When 

 the nest is in a situation to which the tent can be brought 



NO. 1689, VOL. 65] 



near, and where the light is good, its natural position is 

 not interfered with, and only such boughs as obstruct the 

 view are cut away. 



It might be thought that the removal of a nest and its 

 surroundings from a height of 40 feet to within a yard or 

 so of the ground, or from the shade of a dense coppice to 

 the glare of sunlight, would seriously disturb the parent 

 birds. This, however, according to the author is not the 

 case if proper precautions be taken. " No injury," writes 

 Mr. Herrick, "is wrought upon old or young. The former 

 nesting conditions are soon forgotten, while the new are 

 quickly adopted and defended with all the boldness of 

 which birds are capable." 



The method is at present only in its infancy, but by its 

 aid we may hope in time to have permanent records of 

 the complete life-history of a large number of birds during 

 their nesting-seasons. R. L. 



Finishing the Negative. Edited by George E. Brown, 



F.I.C. Pp.160. (London: Dawbarn and Ward, Ltd., 



1901.) 

 Although there are many very excellent handbooks on 

 photography in general, there are few which give so much 

 useful and necessary information regarding the treat- 

 ment of the photographic plate after the negative has 

 been obtained. Many amateurs consider the negative 

 ready for printing after a few spots have been obliterated 

 and perhaps a small retouch here and there ; but a glance 

 at this book gives one the idea that the negative is by no 

 means ready for printing, but may be improved (in the 

 case of beginners probably not) by many of the numerous 

 hints here brought together. The separate chapters of 

 this book are devoted to the manipulations of drying, 

 hardening, clearing and removing stains, different 

 methods of intensification and reduction, softening and 

 increasing contrasts, varnishing, stripping, retouching 

 portrait negatives, handwork on back and front of nega- 

 tive, spotting and blocking out, and many other aids to 

 producing a " perfect " picture, concluding with special 

 hints for applying the above processes to the working of 

 celluloid and stripping films. 



The editor of the book tells us that in many of the 

 chapters he has had the able help of several workers in 

 these special lines of work, so that the reader will find 

 the hints both practical and instructive. 



The book will certainly fill a gap as regards the special 

 branches to which it is devoted, and the many well-chosen 

 illustrations considerably aid the text in showing the 

 reader the "before" and " after " stages ofmanyof the 

 manipulations described. 

 Text-book of Elementary Bota?iy. By Charlotte L. 



Laurie. Pp. ix -(- 142. (London : Allman and Son, 



Ltd., n.d.) Price 2s. bd. 

 This little book supplies the information required for 

 such examinations as the junior Oxford and Cambridge, 

 and is specially adapted to a school curriculum. Despite 

 some defects which are mentioned below, the author is to 

 be congratulated on having written an elementary botany 

 which shows some new features and by its character and 

 conciseness avoids the dull level of most similar works. 

 There is much that calls for favourable comment. The 

 language is simple, and technical words are slipped in 

 easily with derivation or other simple explanation ; 

 the illustrations are original, for the most part extremely 

 good and well reproduced, and throughout the book an 

 admirable balance is maintained— no easy matter when 

 the compass is so small. There are three parts to the 

 book, dealing with morphology, classification and physi- 

 ology respectively. \'ery wisely, no attempt is made 

 to treat of internal anatomy, so that all exercises can 

 be worked out with the lens and scalpel. In the mor- 

 phological part, useful summaries pick out at intervals 

 the main data for description or compaiison ; also 

 numerous ecological references are worked in. One must 



