SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



157 



NOTICES BY JOHN T. CARRINGTON. 



The Pheasant. Natural History, by the Rev. 

 H. A. Macpherson. Shooting, by A. J. Stuart- 

 Wortley. Cookery, by Alexander Innes Shand. 

 273 pp. 8vo. Illustrated with eleven drawings by 

 A. Thorburn, and various diagrams in the text 

 by A. J. Stuart-Wortley. (London and New 

 York : Longmans, Green and Co., 1895.) Price 5 s - 



claim, in our opinion, for excellence in this kind of 

 work. The preface is. written by Mr. Alfred E. T. 

 Watson, the editor, who, by the way, makes the 

 very common error of using the word " variety " 

 for " species." It is surprising how often this 

 interchange occurs, some people evidently con- 

 sidering them synonymous. Mr. Macpherson 

 divides the natural history of the pheasant into five 

 chapters, under the headings of " The Pheasant in 

 History," " The Pheasant in the Woodlands," 

 "Freaks and Oddities," "Old World Fowling" 

 and " Poaching in the Nineteenth Century Style." 

 All these chapters are full of interest, being lightly 

 written to suit both an unscientific and a more 

 learned audience. Mr. Thorburn has been very 

 successful with his pictures, two of which we re- 

 produce by the courtesy of the publishers. Alto- 

 gether this is an excellent book, which should be, 

 with the others of the series, in every country house. 



Uninvited Guests. 

 (Fro:n " The Pheasant." — Fur and Feather Series.) 



This book is one of Messrs. Longmans' "Fur 

 and Feather Series," which was created to present 

 monographs upon the various English birds and 

 beasts which are generally included under the head 

 of game. Two have already appeared, dealing 

 with "The Partridge" and "The Grouse." It 

 was a happy idea to design this series, for the 

 various chapters appeal to different sections of 

 readers. We have to notice only the natural- 

 history side of the subjects, not that we personally 

 object to either the sporting or the cookery sides, 

 but they will be much better dealt with elsewhere. 

 As hitherto, our section in this series is written by 

 the Rev. H. A. Macpherson, than whom, with 

 regard to the birds at least, no one has a greater 



The Climates of the Geological Past, and their Rela- 

 tion to the Evolution of the Sun. By Eug. Dubois. 

 175 pp. crown 8vo. (London : Swan, [Sonnen- 

 schein and Co., 1895.) Price 3s. 6d. 



The name of Mons. Eugene Dubois has recently 

 become familiar to English readers through his 

 supposed discovery of the remains of an animal 

 that was to form a connecting link — the missing 

 link — between man and the anthropoid apes, which 

 he named Pithecanthropus erectus. The book before 

 us is a translation by M. Dubois, assisted by Mr. 

 T. Delpart, of a treatise published in 1S93 in 

 German, and an enlarged edition of an essay in 

 Dutch, 1S91. The work attempts to explain, by 

 changes of solar heat, the great climatic changes of 



