Revieivs and Book Notices. 



position of a battering- ram, and frame quivering- with the vibration 

 engendered of his vehicle, who can dwell on these attractions with full 

 appreciation. Nor is it his more reckless brother, the motorist, who 

 crashes along our country roads, with powers of observation narrowed by 

 hideous binocular vizor, and at a speed whose centrifugal force drives in 

 terror every other wayfarer— chicken, child, woman, or man, to fly like 

 sparks from anvil in all directions, if haply they may even so escape 

 destruction.' 







Annual Report and Proceedings of the Lancashire and 

 Cheshire Entomological Society.— This old and well-known society 

 is to be heartily congratulated on its ' Twenty-eighth Annual Report and 

 Proceedings,' just issued. They show at once that the society, always a 

 good one, is now in an exceptionally flourishing condition. Its record of 

 the past year tells of solid and valuable work accomplished, whilst the 

 scientific standing of its present officers should be a sufficient guarantee 

 as to its future progress. Perhaps the most valuable parts of the 

 ' Proceedings ' are the ' Preliminary List of the Orthoptera of Lancashire 

 and Cheshire,' by the Hon. Secretary, Mr. E. B. J. Sopp, F.E.S., and the 

 paper on ' The Callipers of Earwigs,' by the same author. These are both 

 worthy of a wider circulation than they are likely to get in the ' Annual 

 Proceedings ' of a local society. Very interesting also to the field lepi- 

 dopterist is the annual address by the Vice-president, Mr. Robert Tait, jun., 

 on ' A Lepidopterist's Work during- 1904 ' ; whilst we are sure that the 

 most excellent portrait of the veteran President of the society, Mr. Samuel 

 J. Capper, F.E.S., which forms the frontispiece, will, to the members, be not 

 the least acceptable part of the ' Proceedings.' — G. T. P. 



British Freshwater Algae. — In the review of the above work in the 

 March ' Naturalist' the illustration of a ' slip ' on the part of the author is 

 really a 'slip' on the part of the reviewer. He says: . . . 'there are 

 occasional slips, as when the filaments of Sacheria are stated to be ' little 

 branched,' as opposed to those of Lemanea, which are described as ' ver}^ 

 branched,' whilst the figures (Fig. 3, A and C) indicate the reverse.' This 

 statement is quite untrue. Under the Family Lemaneacese (on p. 40) it is 

 stated: 'The fructiferous branches .... are the most conspicuous and 

 important parts of the plant, in most species the vegetative portion dying- 

 away after their production, . . . .' Under Z£'w««£'« (p. 42) :' The vegeta- 

 tive "thallus .... is very branched but never piliferous. The fructiferous 

 filaments are torulose and normally simple. Lender Sacheria (p. 42) : ' The 

 veg-etative thallus is ... . little branched, often piliferous, and exists for 

 about a month. . . . The fructiferous filaments are cylindrical or setaceous 

 and usually branched.' The vegetative thallus of these plants has only 

 been seen by a few authors, and the filaments fig-ured are naturalh' the 

 fructiferous ones, which are the viost conspicuous and important parts of ttic 

 plant, reaching a length of 18 cms. — G. S. West. 







Of books dealing with birds there appears to be no end. ' Birds I have 

 Known,' by A. H. Beavan, is issued by Mr. T. Fisher Unwin (5s.). It is 

 evidently intended as a prize for a good — very g-ood — boy or g'irl — and will 

 certainly not lead him or her astray by teaching an3'thing about evolution 

 or matters of that sort. The author informs us that he doesn't believe 

 in transmigration of souls, nor in the theory that birds were at one time 

 reptiles and have developed themselves into their present higher form of 

 life.' He is content to accept the unquestioning- creed of his little son, 

 who maintains that, 'as the Bible says ' God on the fifth day created every 

 winged fowl after their kind,' it is no use saying that he didn 't. ' Those of our 

 readers who have little sons of that character should buy them !Mr. Beavan s 



Naturalist, 



