NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 525 



delicate and extremely beautiful fungus-like organisms common 

 in all the moist and wooded regions of the earth." They were 

 formerly classed with the " puff-balls," but their physiological 

 characters have prompted the question, " Are they not animals ?" 

 This is the position suggested by De Bary in 1858, and adopted 

 since by, amongst others, Mr. Saviile Kent and Dr. William Zopf. 

 The first was inclined to join them to the Sponges, whilst the 

 second associated both Slime-Moulds and Monads. Prof. Mac- 

 bride strikes a distinctly middle course. He asks: — "But why 

 call them either animals or plants ? Was nature then so poor 

 that forsooth only two lines of differentiation were at the begin- 

 ning open for her effort ? May we not rather believe that Life's 

 tree may have risen at first in hundreds of tentative trunks, of 

 which two have become in the progress of ages so far dominant 

 as to entirely obscure less progressive types ? The Myxomycetes 

 are independent ; all that we may attempt is to assert their 

 nearer kinship with one or other of Life's great branches." 



This is an excellently illustrated technical book, with a 

 purely biological and philosophical introduction. 



Bird Stuffing and Mounting. By the author of * Hints on Egg 

 Collecting and Nesting.' Dartford : J. & W. Davis. 



A small and inexpensive book on a very difficult subject. 

 There is an old proverb that he who is his own lawyer has a fool 

 for a client, and the young ornithologist might be advised, if he 

 has the funds, to no more attempt to set up his birds in cases 

 than to try to make his own gun. A few succeed, the many do 

 not. The setting-up of birds is distinctly a profession, as the 

 hideous work of the ordinary tradesman sufficiently testifies. To 

 make one's own skins is, however, quite another matter; while a 

 baronial hall and a respectable rent-roll are both necessary if 

 even the British ornithologist is to possess a cased collection. 

 But to fill one's cabinet drawers with good skins, and in sufficient 

 variety, is not beyond the power of any real student or collector. 

 Hence this small volume may be found useful for those who wish 

 to learn how to skin and preserve, though " stuffing and mount- 

 ing " are its main instructions. 



