Reviews and Book Notices. 
37 
WAXWINGS IN THE WEST RIDING. 
It is rather a curious fact that we should have more records of Waxwings 
this season in this district than in the great invasion of a year ago. Mr. 
R. Butterfield informs me that two Waxwings were in a Rowan or 
Mountain Ash tree on November 22nd and 23rd at Higher Utley, a 
suburb of Keighley. They were in the garden of Mr. Rish worth, and 
took very little notice of traffic, etc., but spent most of their time dozing 
or preening — occasionally dropping to the ground for a fallen berry. 
Another was seen at close quarters at Shipley on November 29th. The 
Rev. C. F. Tomlinson informs that a small flock of six or eight birds 
were seem just after the middle of November in the Deep Park, Bolton 
Abbey, close to where one was killed by a Hawk a year ago. The same, 
or a similar, flock were seen at the same place on December 2nd, and 
were feeding on haws. It is strange that they turn up suddenly in 
November and disappear in December to nobody knows where. — H. B. 
Booth, Ben Rhydding. 
BRITISH WILLOW TIT IN YORKSHIRE. 
At a recent meeting of the British Ornithologists’ Club, Mr. H. F. 
Witherby stated, on the authority of Mr. A. Hazelwood, of Doncaster, 
that the British Willow Tit ( Paras atricapillus kleinschmidti) was common 
around Doncaster, and that it nested there freely. — H. B. Booth. 
REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 
The Form and Properties of Crystals, an Introduction to the 
Study of Minerals and the use of the Petrological Microscope, by 
A. B. Dale. This book has been written for first -year students doing 
Mineralogy and Crystallography, most of the existing elementary text- 
books on this subject being expensive. The writer’s object is to introduce 
students of geology to the minimum knowledge of Crystallography and 
Physics (more especially Physical Opticsjwhich it is essential they should 
possess, if they are to have any intelligent notion of what they are doing 
when they study thin slices of rocks under the microscope. Cambridge 
University Press, 186 pp., 6/-. 
Insect Behaviour, by Evelyn Cheeseman. Philip Allen & Co., 
Ltd., 1932, pp. 186, 4/6 net. This is a well-written account of insect 
behaviour for the ‘ Man in the street.’ It is pointed out that, owing to 
their immense antiquity, insects have reached a high stage of development. 
Their actions are governed by hereditary instincts and not by intelligence. 
Numerous examples of these instincts are given. Instinctive behaviour, 
however, can be varied by an alteration of circumstance and there are such 
actions as ‘ blind trials. ’ There is also a seeming awareness of failure and 
danger which may cause an alteration in behaviour, and certain insects 
apparently are able to learn by experience. Insects come into the 
world predisposed to a distinct mode of behaviour, inherited through 
natural selection and though there is a latent faculty to vary behaviour, 
there is no evidence of a conception of ultimate aim. Influences in the 
environment evoke an appropriate response, the action being prompted 
by outside stimuli. Tropisms have to do with ordinary every-day 
needs and are of various kinds, such as heliotropism, thermotropism and 
chemotropisms. There is also a certain amount of periodicity of behaviour 
which has become stereotyped and can act without the appropriate 
stimulus as when a diurnal insect becomes active in the daytime even 
though kept in the dark when the normal stimulus of light is absent. 
The instincts of the parent in the preparation for the next generation 
are frequently most complicated and are discussed in this work with 
interesting detail. The author is to be congratulated on having produced 
a most readable and instructive little book. 
1933 Feb. 1 
