J^i'vic:vs a/id Book A\)h'ccs. 



Watsonian \'ice-counties : — west Kent, Cambiitlge. Chester, 

 west Lancaster, south-west Yorkshire, and Westmorhmd with 

 North Lancashire. Dr. W. G. Smith and j\Ir. A. G. Tansley 

 gathered some specimens of Oaks in North-East Yorkshire 

 last June, and these were examined by Mr. Tansley and mj/self : 

 among the specimens were one or two of the Hybrid Oak. 

 Mr. W. M. Rankin has forwarded me specimens, a few of which 

 belong to the Hybrid, from a locality in mid-west Yorkshire. 

 Mr. Tansley also reports to me the finding, in June 1908, of the 

 H^'brid Oak in Hereford and \Vorcester. Herbarium specimens 

 Avhich I have examined, prove its occurrence also in Sussex, 

 Bedford, Derby, Dumbarton, and Perth. I am very shortly 

 publishing elsewhere an account of the characters, status, and 

 distribution of all the British Oaks. — C. E. Moss, Cambridge. 



—— 



Transactions of the Rochdale Literary and Scientific Society. 



Vol. IX., 1905-1908. 114 + xxxi\-. pp. 



This record of this Society's work for the last four years is a good one, 

 and contains many useful papers. Perhaps that which will appeal to 

 our readers the most is on ' Fossil Arthopoda and Pisces from Middle Coal 

 ^Measures of Sparth, Rochdale,' by William A. Parker. In this the author 

 enumerates the various finds made from time to time in the now well- 

 kno^^^l ironstone nodules in the shales at Sparth Bottoms. The paper 

 is illustrated by representations of the more interesting fossils found. 

 There is a paper on ' Manchester's contribution to the Chemistry of the 

 Nineteenth Century,' by J. H. Brittain ; 'Marine Shells: their Variety 

 and Beauty,' by Rev. A. Hann, and ' The Underground Waters of Roch- 

 dale and Neighbourhood ' (with analyses), by T. Stenhouse. There are 

 also exceedingly useful papers on such subjects as Rochdale Newspapers, 

 the Meteorological Elements of Rochdale, Two Reputed Manor Houses of 

 Rochdale, Inscriptions on Rochdale Gravestones, etc., as well as others 

 of a purely literary character. This Society is obviously doing excellent 

 work in its district, and, in its Transactions are preserved many important 

 communications. 



Animal Romances, by Graham Renshaw, M.B., F.Z.S. London : 

 Sherratt & Hughes. 206 pp., 7/6 net. 



Some little time ago in noticing this wr.ter s ' Final Natural History 

 Essays,' we expressed the hope that they might not be final.' This hope 

 lias been realized, and we can safely say that ' Anima^ Romances ' is even 

 more interesting than its predecessors. It cons sts of a series of essay^, 

 written first-hand from actual studies in the field, in this w^ay shewing a 

 marked contrast between many, very many ' natural history ' books that 

 are now being placed upon the market. The present volume deals not 

 so much with the zoology and history of the mammals, asowith Dr. Ren- 

 shaw' s previous books, but in the present case the author has attempted 

 to present the animals as actually lixdng and moving before the reader. 

 Dr. Renshaw now deals with elephants, giraffes, hippopotamus, eland, 

 jackals, penguins, etc., etc., and the essays are written in a style and with 

 a literary ' finish ' that is quite refreshing. The bnly fault we have to find 

 with the volume is the increase in the size of its pages, the actual letterpress 

 being the same as in previous volumes, though this may have been done to 

 better accommodate the many excellent piates. 



Naturalist, 



