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NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



Nature Studies in Australia. By Wm. Gillies, M.A., and Bobx. 

 Hall, C.M.Z.S., &c. Melbourne : Whitcoinbe & Tombs, 

 Limited. 



This is a truly bionomical book, and shows that Australian 

 naturalists are also pursuing that observational method which 

 may be described as " back to nature." The irony of the pro- 

 cedure, however, is that though the wholesome principle is 

 enunciated that we should observe animals ourselves, rather 

 than read about them in books, nearly every original observer 

 publishes a book himself, so that the literature is more ample 

 than ever. Still the number among us who can either see or 

 think for themselves is, and must ever be, so minute, that we are 

 thankful for such publications ; to be independent of them would 

 constitute the standard of a Darwin. 



The method of the book is of the conversational style, some- 

 what recalling Dr. Johnson and the immortal Boswell ; but one 

 cannot read a page without meeting with a new suggestion, or the 

 enunciation of little known facts. In our last issue (ante, p. 238), 

 attention was drawn to a recent proposition that each breeding bird 

 was occupier of a certain plot of ground. Our authors describe 

 the same thing in Australia, where rival Cuckoos are seldom seen 

 fighting. " They seem to have so arranged their areas of action 

 as to map out all the Cuckoo-region systematically. In imagina- 

 tion you can pass from call to call all over this wide region of 

 wood and pasture." 



In concluding a notice of this interesting book, we must 

 allude to the " Common Names of Australian Birds," which are 

 given as appendix. The danger of these cognomens to any 

 non- ornithological observer can well be appreciated by two 

 citations : — 



Crane (Blue) ... ... White-fronted Heron. 



Heron (White-fronted) ... Blue Crane. 



