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EDITORIAL GLEANINGS. 



Most of our readers will have been made cognizant of the recent great 

 " boom " of the last edition of the ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' and doubt- 

 less those who could spare the cash, and, what was far more necessary, 

 room, have acquired those excellent volumes. We are glad to notice a very 

 useful and novel publication on the same lines in the ' Temple Encyclopaedic 

 Primers,' published by J. M. Dent & Co., in which each subject occupies a 

 small and very inexpensive volume, handy in size, nicely printed, and well 

 illustrated. This method allows selection by those who limit their subjects, 

 and who have already congested shelves. Two only of those yet published 

 have appertained to our domain. One — " An Introduction to Science," by 

 Dr. Alexander Hill, Master of Downing, Cambridge — cannot be considered 

 foreign to our studies, for it admirably conveys what should philosophically 

 qualify many of our conceptions and conclusions on what, are often, but 

 materialistic appearances, while pointing to a moderate and healthy idealism. 

 The second primer is on " Ethnology," by Dr. Michael Haberlaudt, of the 

 Ethnological Museum, Vienua, which will hold its place among other much 

 larger and more pretentious publications on the subject. 



We have received the ' Illustrated Annual of Microscopy ' for this year, 

 published by Percy Lund, Humphries & Co. Ltd. Besides very much 

 useful information regarding method of work and appliances, for those who 

 study the small things of life, and, as says a motto on the publications of the 

 French Entomological Society, " Natura maxims miranda in minimis,'" 

 there are also some strictly biological articles. Mr. D. J. Scourfield has 

 given a beautifully illustrated article on " A Hyaline Daphnia " ; Mr. W. M. 

 Webb has written on " Some Mollusca and the Microscope"; and " British 

 Fresh-water Mites— Arrenurus " is the subject of Mr. C. D. Soar. As this 

 last author well remarks, " very few workers in Britain have taken up this 

 part of pond-life at present." Mr. Macer describes " A unique method of 

 exhibiting microscopically a living fly in the act of feeding." These are the 

 bionomic facts which will revolutionise the zoology of the future. We 

 would fain hear more from microscopists in these pages. 



In the last (April) number of the * Auk ' is a most interesting communi- 

 cation entitled " Care of Nest and Young," by Francis H. Herrick. We can 

 only give the following extracts : — " It is plainly advantageous for birds 

 which breed on or near the ground to remove every particle of litter which 



