NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 275 



are to be valued for their suggestive stimulus to future workers 

 rather than to be accepted as dogmas of an evolutionary creed. 

 In the study of organic evolution we might accept the foreword 

 of the 'Hibbert Journal' : " We stand for three positive truths : 

 that the Goal of thought is One ; that thought, striving to 

 reach the Goal, must forever move; that in the conflict of 

 opinion the movement is furthered by which the many approach 

 the One." 



It is announced that the complete work will contain two 

 hundred coloured plates, and many in monochrome. Those in 

 the present volume have reached a no inconsiderable standard 

 in excellence. We do not expect this publication to be absolutely 

 infallible — that is a literary impossibility — but it has certainly 

 apprehended a want in animal bionomics, and undertaken a 

 work of which the open door had long been disregarded. How 

 the scheme will be elaborated succeeding volumes will alone 

 prove ; this one at least has laid a good foundation. 



A Handbook of the Birds of Tasmania and its Dependencies. By 

 Frank Mervyn Littler, M.A.O.U. Published by the 

 author at Launceston (65, High Street), Tasmania. 



This, which we believe is absolutely the first book to treat of 

 the birds of Tasmania as a whole, is written and published by 

 Mr. Littler at cost price, and for a few shillings, at his own risk 

 and initiative, and we trust that his enterprise will not entail the 

 usual results; it certainly does not deserve to do so. Some 

 two hundred and fourteen species are fully described, and also 

 the nests and eggs of the birds as well, with many useful and 

 interesting observations. The fauna has its distinctive pecu- 

 liarities. " Of the species 'peculiar' to the island, all save the 

 Lesser White-backed Magpie (Gymnorhina hyperleuca) are larger 

 than their nearest allies on the mainland. A number of species 

 lay four or even five eggs to the clutch, while the same species 

 or related ones on the continent of Australia lay but three. 

 There are also a number of structural differences in the nests of 

 several species as compared with those across the Strait, but 

 this point is not emphasized as much as the preceding ones, nor 



