NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 337 



vertebrates, birds hold the same position as the Lepidoptera in 

 the invertebrates ; they are ever popular, and evidently appeal to 

 the aesthetic sense. In any smoking-room men can be found 

 who can say something about birds, while other animals, save 

 such as appertain to sport, are too often distinctly caviare. We 

 may therefore be thankful to ornithologists for always keeping 

 their lamps trimmed, and sustaining a general interest in zoology. 



One seldom reads a county book on birds without meeting 

 with new or little-known facts, and this publication is no excep- 

 tion. Thus we are told that our old friend Corvus frugilegus 

 often exhibits a preference for a particular tree in a rookery. 

 " At Wythenshawe, Mr. J. J. Cash has counted forty nests in a 

 single sycamore, which comes into leaf earlier than the surrounding 

 elms and beeches." 



The volume is embellished with six photogravure illustra- 

 tions, and a map of the county. 



Nature in Downland. By W. H. Hudson. Longmans, 

 Green & Co. 



This book may be described as a charming reverie on the 

 Sussex downs by a naturalist. These bracing and rolling high- 

 lands are appreciated by two classes of visitors — the artist and 

 the naturalist. The first absorbs the wild and somewhat mono- 

 tonous scenery, and returns with a landscape engraven on his 

 heart ; the second patiently endeavours to read Nature's hiero- 

 glyphics, and to many, probably, appears as a lone and strange 

 creature, like the local shepherd. Jefferies was the apostle of this 

 method, and has evidently founded a school of thought which 

 writes in prose what some of the older poets felt and sang in 

 verse. But we shall never receive in print the deepest thoughts 

 that Nature sometimes imparts ; these things are fugitive, and 

 never written. It is only a legend that the finest impressions of 

 humanity may be found in books ; the individual who might 

 wish to print what should be unutterable is certainly outside the 

 musings of the Sphinx. After all, the naturalist can only record 

 facts; of his impressions he knoweth not whither they come 

 or go. We would all gladly recall, if we could, some of these 

 mysterious whisperings, but the quest is too often futile. 



Zool. 4th ser. vol. IV., July, 1900. 2 a 



