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REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 



Through Southern Mexico (being an account of the travels of a 

 Naturalist), by Hans Gadow, F.R.S., etc. London : Witherby & Co. 

 527 pp., 18/- net. 



We should like first to congratulate Messrs. Witherby on publishing so 

 sound and substantial a volume as that before us. It is quite refreshing 

 to peruse it, coming, as it does, at a time when so many publishers of 

 natural history volumes seem to think that ' a book's a book, although 

 there's nothing in it.' Dr. Hans Gadow is well known as a careful and 

 accurrate observer, and he further has the ability of clearly setting forth 

 his observations in black and white. His visit, therefore, to an inaccessible 

 part of Mexico, where ' you do not need an}^ arms whilst travelling, but 

 when you do, you want them badly,' is bound to be of general interest. 

 Together with his wife. Dr. Gadow has spent a considerable time in the 

 remote parts of Mexico, and observed many interesting facts relating to the 

 geology, botany, zoology, archaeology, ^.tc, etc., of that interesting area. 

 Some of the more technical results of nis travels have already appeared 

 in the Proceedings of various learned societies, but we think the author 

 was well advised in publishing the narrative of his rambles in the present 

 form. He has been most successful in observing nature in her various 

 phases, and has been able to record many mteresting and important new 

 facts. The description he gives are most fascinating, whilst now and 

 then the details of exciting adventures of another kind add an interest 

 to the volume. By the aid of camera and sketch-book, the author has 

 been able to present a very graphic idea of the country he passed through, 

 its natural history and archaeological features, and its people. There are 

 over a hundred and sixty illustrations. One drawback (if such it can be 

 called) to the book is that when once it is well started of it must be com- 

 pleted, no matter how busy the reader may be. There is a very good Index, 

 remarkable for the unusual number of X's and Z's used. 



In a bulky volume of 544 pages Mr. F. A. Bellamy gives *A 

 Historical Account of the Ashmolean Natural History Society of 

 Oxfordshire, 1880=1905. 



There is much useful information in the volume, but, on the other hand, 

 there is much that seems trivial ; for instance pp. 88-90 are occupied by 

 extracts from the minutes in reference to the days on which the society 

 should meet — each new secretary apparently requiring a change in the 

 dates of the meetings ! 



Forest Entomology, by A. T. Gillanders, F.E.S. Edinburgh: 

 W. Blackwood & Sons. 422 pp., 15/- net. 



The first impression this book gives is that it is a thoroughly practical 

 and carefully-prepared volume, and that it will at once take its place as 

 the principal treatise on the subjects with which it deals. It is beautifully 

 printed, and illustrated by 351 blocks, many from photographs, and a 

 cursory glance through its pages leaves a very favourable impression. 

 The book is .argely based upon observations made in Cheshire and North- 

 umberland, and the author has been assisted by a little army of helpers ; 

 while the way in which he has borrowed blocks from other sources puts 

 into the shade the efforts of a certain magazine, which shall be nameless ! 

 But when one comes to carefully read the book with only a very fair 

 knowledge of the ' common or garden ' (as against ' forest ') entomology, 

 its deficiences become at once apparent, and it reminds one of the gaily 

 dressed duchess-looking damsel on the Manx steamer, who, on being 

 asked if the motion of the boat did not make her ill, replied ' norrit.' The 

 author, the woods manager to His Grace the Duke of Northumberland, is 

 most probably a very capable forester, but his knowledge of entomology 

 is not of the best. However, he admits that ' he has just about the necessary 

 amount of knowledge to make a beginning.' We would therefore recom- 

 mend him to make a beginning, and then, after devoting some time to the 



Naturalist, 



