148 
NATURE NOTES 
omitted, is alone worth more than the modest price of the guide, whilst the 
quarterly records contain a variety of interesting notes, too great for us to attempt 
even an enumeration. 
t 
Morale de la Nature. Par M. Deshumbert. D. Nutt. Price is. net. 
This is an attempt to construct a system of elementary ethics on cosmical 
evolution. The following sample will suffice : “ La fleur, pour avoir des 
enfants vigoureux, c’est-a-dire afin de donner aux generations futures le pouvoir 
de vivre normalement leur Vie, et dans un but purement altruiste, la fleur refuse 
de se feconder elle-meme.” .Such nonsense as this attribution of altruism to 
flowers might mislead a child into illogical and unscientific paths, were it not too 
puerile to produce any effect. 
Pyrenean Geology. By P. W. Stuart Menteath. Parts VII. and VIII. Darwinism 
and the Convictions of the Alonkey Mind. 27 pp. Dulan and Co. Price fid. 
Sur les M&thodes de la Nouvelle Geologic. Par P. W. Stuart Menteath. 
Mr. Stuart Menteath is very angry with the shades of Darwin and Huxley, and 
apparently with most scientific men, living or deceased, so angry, in fact, that he 
has no time to give us any coherent contribution to Pyrenean geology. 
The Book of the Open Air. Part II. Hodder and Stoughton. Price is. net. 
The second part of this sumptuous work maintains the credit of the first. 
Mr. Tregarthen’s “ Life Story of a Badger,” Mr. Patterson’s “ Bird-watching 
in a Breydon Punt,” and the commencement of Mr. Hudson’s “ Advice to Adder- 
Seekers,” in the text ; and Mr. Pike’s “Grebe” and Mr. King’s “Beeches” 
among the five coloured plates may, perhaps, be specially mentioned among 
a series of contributions, all of which are of interest. 
British Birds : an Illustrated Magazine devoted to the Birds on the British List. 
Edited by H. F. Witherby, assisted by W. P. Pycraft. Nos. I and 2, June 
and July. Witherby and Co. Price is. net monthly. 
This is a welcome addition to our ornithological serials. As might be expected 
from Messrs. Witherby, paper and print are all that can be desired ; while, if the 
editors’ names alone were not sufficient guarantee of sound matter, those of Drs. 
Bowdler Sharpe, P. L. Sclater and the Hon. Walter Rothschild, of Messrs. 
Howard Saunders, J. H. Gurney, W. E. Clarke and F. C. Selous among the 
contributors, most assuredly are so. Mr. P. H. Bahr contributes “ Study of 
the Home Life of the Osprey,” illustrated by a series of excellent plates from his 
own photographs ; and No. 2 has as frontispiece a first-rate photogravure of the 
late Professor Newton, whose death has made so serious a break in the ranks of 
our senior students of bird-life. 
Proceedings of the South London Entomological and Natural History Society, 
1906-7. With 4 plates. Price 2s. fid. 
This active Society sends out a typical annual volume, with an interesting 
address by their President, Mr. Adkin, and full reports of their field meetings. 
Notes from Adelboden, Switzerland, and on West Indian Crustacea, would seem 
to be painfully out of place in a South London publication were they more than 
brief abstracts, and “ Notes on the Butieiflies of Saskatchewan ” is rather longer, 
and therefore even less appropriate in its place of appearance. 
Dew-Ponds. By E. A. Alariin. Reprinted from Knowledge for May and June. 
Illustrated. Pp. 12. 
Mr. Martin has rendered a valuable service to naturalists in south-east 
England by collecting and sifting the evidence on this old-time question. 
Nature Reader Monthly. By F. II. Shoosmith. Pp. 32. Illustrated. Charles 
and Diblc. Price id. 
We have received the numbers of this “Reader” for July and August, 
which are remarkable productions for the price. They contain very good and 
numerous illustrations, and deal with subjects of such varied interest as climbing 
plants, frogs, toads and newts, the salt and tides of the sea, butterflies and 
moths. The information is accurate, but perhaps there is too much of it 
administered directly in large doses, and a good deal of too learned language. 
