SHORT NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
55 
entangled fly, and that they therefore rush to secure the booty. Some species 
will under this impression actually tackle a tuning fork. Others take it for a 
note of danger and drop from their web, or otherwise take themselves off. 
The paper entitled “ Do we eat too much ?” a question which, as it implies, 
is to be answered in the affirmative, concludes with a forecast of the future, when 
science shall enjoy its own, which, as some may possibly think, suggests the 
addition of a new horror to life, beside which dyspepsia itself will pale its 
horrors. “ The restaurant (of the dim future) may be provided with its diet 
tables, and our waiters (of the scientific era of life) may produce our food as per 
scale of dietaries.” 
“ The Actor’s Art among Animals,” is somewhat disappointing, and may 
seem to illustrate the remarks already made as to the comparative dearth of 
actual observation met with in such treatises. The author confines himself 
almost entirely to what may be learnt from books and museums, concerning the 
changes of colour whereby animals assimilate themselves to their surroundings. 
But we hear nothing of the dramatic skill with which a hen partridge or willow - 
wren will decoy an intruder from her nest by feigning to be wounded, nor of the 
artful mimicry with which the sedge-warbler will bewilder a blackbird, or a 
black-cap will outdo the thrush in his own song. These are the things for a 
field naturalist to study, and a faithful and vivid record of such would enable him 
to produce books still more interesting and instructive than those before us. 
John Gerard. 
SHORT NOTICES OF BOOKS, 
Beautifully printed and “got up,” as Messrs. Macmillan’s books always 
are, we must confess to being disappointed with Miss Yonge’s An Old IVomaii s 
Outlook in a Hampshire Village (Macmillan, 3s. 6d.). There is very little of it 
to begin with, and yet Miss Vonge has shown powers of observation in those 
many volumes which have been the delight of several generations since the Heir 
of 'Redclyffe appeared, just forty years ago — volumes in which, as has been 
observed, even “ large families have been made interesting.” When we go on to 
say that the little is not always accurate, we do so with a .sense not only of regret, 
but of surprise, for many years ago Miss Vonge gave us a little volume, The Herb 
of the Field, which contrasted favourably with most jiopular books about wild 
flowers. The Outlook is arranged in twelve monthly portions, which, we 
imagine, originally appeared independently — at least, this seems the most natural 
way of accounting for the repetitions which occur here and there. But the errors 
of fact are more serious, and should be corrected in any future edition. The 
spelling of the names of plants is odd enough, as when we are informed that 
the Latin name of the hazel is “ Coryllaf of the mistletoe, ‘‘ I’iscits albatusf 
and of the woodsorrel, “ Oxalis acetosaR But this is nothing to being told that 
“ the little Banksia roses are not roses at all, but an Australian creeper” (p. 49), 
and that the tubers of an arum (apparently Richardia eethiopica) “ afford the best 
starchpowder or arrowroot, which is really arum-root" ! In the former case. 
Miss Vonge seems to be confounding the Herria, commonly called “ Corchorus 
japonicus,” with the Banksia rose ; in the latter, there is some confusion between 
arrowroot and Portland arrowroot, which was at one time prepared from the 
tubers of our English arum. The notion that the M.ay doll is “a remnant ol 
honour to an image of the Blessed Virgin on the opening of the month of Mary ” 
is untenable, as this dedication of May is comparatively modern. 
There is a good deal of pleasant reading in the book of a chatty, sociable 
sort, and a certain amount of local observation. But Canon Atkinson’s Moor- 
land Parish has spoilt us for inferior works of the kind, and Miss Vonge’s Outlook 
can hardly claim as high a place as Miss Mitford’s Our Village. 
Astronomy for Everyday Readers, by B. J. Hopkins (London : George Philip 
& Son, IS.), is intended for those who wish to have some knowledge of the 
