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/^ev/ews and Book Notices. 



SOME NEW NATURE BOOKS. 



The number of books dealing with Nature Study, now being turned out 

 by various and numerous pubUshers, is surely a sign of the increased 

 interest being taken in natural science. Most of the scores of volumes 

 that have appeared during the past twelve months have been specially 

 prepared for children ; and as this class of book still appears on the market, 

 it is fair to assume there is a demand for it, and that a few years hence 

 there will be a grand crop of field naturalists ! 



Messrs. Everett & Co. have published English Bird Life, by H. 

 Knight Horsfield, M.B.O.U. (466 pp., 7/6 net) which contains a veritable 

 picture gallery of birds, mostly young ones. The photographs are largely 

 the work of Mr. T. A. JNIetcalfe, and are alike a credit to the photographer 

 and the printer, who has produced them in a way that is all that can be 

 desired. INIr. Horsfield has a pleasant style, and draws attention to the 

 more interesting facts relating to the various species with which he deals. 

 His information is also reliable. We cannot say that ' English Bird Life ' 

 contains very much more than is to be found in other recently 

 published volumes dealing with the same subject, but it is illustrated in 

 an exceptionally lavish manner. One of the illustrations the publishers 

 kindly allow us to reproduce (Plate XXVII.). 



The Open Air, by Richard Jefferies, will need little recommendation 

 to readers of this journal. It is a book that can be read over and over 

 again, and each time with profit. Messrs. Chatto & Windus have just 

 issued a very excellent edition (234 pp., 5/- net), which is illustrated by 

 Ruth Dollman, whose pictures have the same freshness that is to be found 

 in Richard Jefferies' writings. If we might make a criticism, it is that 

 there is just a little monotony in the golden yellows of the sketches ; a 

 little variety would have been welcome, such as occurs in the coloured 

 end-papers, which are quite refreshing after a perusal of the sketches on 

 the plates. Possibly the latter have lost some of their charm by the pro- 

 cess of reproduction. 



In ' Animal Life,' by Dr. F. W. Gamble, F.R.S. (Smith, Elder & Co., 

 305 pp., 6]- net), we have a substantial and thoroughly scientific treatise, 

 of a very different stamp from many books having a similar name (the 

 present being by no means the first volume bearing this identical title). 

 Dr. Gamble's work as Lecturer on Zoology at Owen's College, Manchester, 

 is widely known, and he has been well advised to place these numerous 

 and varied essays in permanent form. It is also pleasant to find to what 

 a large extent the Manchester Museum has been able to supply him with 

 excellent examples for illustration — no matter on what branch of natural 

 history he writes. The book is arranged on original lines, the chapters 

 dealing with the Interest of Animal Life, the Fulness of the Earth, the 

 Organisation of Animal Life, Movement, the Quest for Food, the Breath 

 of Life, the Senses of Animals, the Colour of Animals, the Welfare of the 

 Race, and the Life Histories of Insects. To those interested in teaching,^ 

 we can particularly recommend this book, but those who revel in blithering 

 twaddle should leave it alone ; they Avill not find any here. 



The Insect Book, by W. Percival Westell, John Lane, 120 pp., 3/-. 

 We have less to complain about in this volume than we have in the 

 generality of Mr. Westell's works, which, by the way, are being turned out 

 with appalling frequency. For one thing ' The Insect Book ' is a small 

 one. As in previous cases the author has been successful in securing a 

 fine collection of photographs — in this instance Mr. R. B. Imission supply- 

 ing the usually very fine illustrations, which form the foundations upon 

 which the book is built. Mr. Westell has endeavoured to give an interest- 

 ing account of the various forms of insect life, and to a large extent he has 

 succeeded. Here and there, however, slips occur, which shew that he is 

 not quite so much at home amongst the beetles and grasshoppers as he is 

 amongst the balloons and birds, particularly when he is addressing his little 



Naturalist, 



