THURSDAY, JULY 255 rote: 
uw 
RECENT WORKS ON NATURAL HISTORY. 
(1) A Naturalist on Desert Islands. By Percy R. 
Lowe. Pp. xii+300. (London: Witherby and 
Co., 1911.) Price 7s. 6d. net. 
(2) The Gentle Art. Some Sketches and Studies. 
By Henry Lamond. Pp. xi+303. (London: 
John Murray, 1911.) Price 6s. net. 
(3) The Age and Growth of Salmon and Trout in 
Norway as Shown by “their Scales. By Knut 
Dahl. Translated ffom the Norwegian by Ian 
Baillie. Edited by J. Arthur Hutton and H. 1. 
Sheringham. Pp. ix+141+ 10 plates. (London : 
The Salmon and Trout Association, Fish- 
mongers’ Hall, E.C., n.d.) Price 5s. 
(4) Reptiles, Amphibia, Fishes and Lower Chor- 
data. By Richard Lydekker, J. T. ‘Cun- 
ningham, G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S., and J. 
Arthur Thomson. Pp. xvi+510+ plates. 
(London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1912.) Price 
1os 6d. net. (Animal Life: an Evolutionary 
Natural History. General Editor: W. P. 
Pycraft.) 
(5) The Ox and its Kindred. By R. Lydekker. 
Pp. xi+271. 
1912.) 
(6) Distribution and Origin of Life in America. 
By Robert F. Scharff. Pp. xvi+ 497. (London : 
Constable and Co., Ltd., 1911.) Price 10s. 6d. 
net. 
(7) 1 History of the Birds of Colorado. By W. 
L. Sclater. Pp. xxiv+576. (London: Witherby 
and Co., rg12.) Price 2 
(Londoa : Methuen and Co., Ltd., 
Price 6s. 
Is. net. 
(8) A Monograph of the British Desmidiaceae. By 
W.. Westeand Prof. G.-S-West. Vol. iv. Pp. 
xiv + 194+ plates 96-128. (London: Printed for 
the Ray Society, 1912.) Price 25s. net. 
(9) The British Tunicata. | An Unfinished Mono- 
graph. By the late Joshua Alder and the late 
Albany Hancock. Edited by John Hopkinson. 
Vol. iit-—Aggregatae (Ascidiae Compositae). 
Pp. xii+113+plates 51-66. (London: Printed 
for the Ray Society, 1912.) Price 12s.'6d. 
net. 
T is sometimes alleged, perhaps with reason, 
| that books on natural history, travel, and 
sport are written with such a view to accuracy in 
the record of fact that they lose all charm of style 
and are unreadable to the ordinary layman. Cer- 
tainly no such charge can be brought against Mr. 
Lowe’s volume (1), wherein he discusses the 
NO. 2230, VOL. 89] 
NATURE 
323 
physical features and natural history of Swan 
Island, Blanquilla and Orquilla, three islets in the 
Caribbean Sea which he visited in Sir Frederic 
Johnstone’s yacht. Whether he is describing the 
origin of the islands, the life on their coral banks, 
the nesting of the birds, or the evolution of the 
hermit crabs, Mr. Lowe is never dull; and this he 
owes to the happy gilt of imagination and feeling, 
coupled with a freedom from restraint in his style, 
which adds a charm to all he tells us. 
Very pleasantly written, too, is Mr. Lamond’s 
volume on the “Gentle Art” (2), and skilfully and 
) alluringly do his pencil and pen express, in the 
series of chapters called “sketches,” the attractions 
from which the passion for fly-fishing springs. 
Indispensable, moreover, to the angler, and especi- 
ally to the novice, will be the more technical chap- 
ters, called “studies,” wherein he attempts to 
explain to the practical lawyer, who frequently 
knows nothing of fishing, and to the practical 
angler, who as frequently knows nothing of law, 
the legal aspects of trout and salmon fishing in 
Scotland. 
Those who wish, on the other hand, to dip more 
deeply into the difficulties involved in determining 
the age of salmon and trout and in understanding 
the factors which favour and control the growth 
of these fishes in different localities will find prac- 
tically all that is known of the subject set forth in 
Mr. Ian Baillie’s translation (3) of Knut Dahl’s 
treatise on the scales of Norwegian examples of 
these two species. 
Fishes again take up nearly half the volume 
written under the joint authorship of Mr. Lydek- 
ker, Dr. Boulenger, Mr. Cunningham, and Prof. 
Arthur Thomson, which constitutes the second in- 
of Methuen’s evolutionary 
natural history (4). 
account of such large and important groups into 
stalment series on 
The compression of the 
a small compass disarms many criticisms that 
might be offered on the score of omissions and of 
the arrangement of the subject matter, especially 
in connection with the reptiles. The chief claim to 
merit the book possesses is the treatment of the 
natural history of these vertebrates, not from the 
point of view of species but from that of habits. 
The result of this new departure is, despite some 
mistakes, a useful and instructive treatise, the 
chapters on fishes by Mr. Cunningham and on the 
breeding habits of batrachians by Dr. Boulenger 
being particularly good. But it would be ungener- 
ous not to mention the section of the volume on 
the lower chordates, written by Prof. Thomson, 
whose account of these obscure forms will be es- 
pecially welcome to beginners in zoology. — Per- 
haps the unfortunate illness of the editor, Mr, 
v 
