NATURE NOTES 
136 
marising the history of the world from B.C. 5,000 to the end of A.D. 1894. 
The primary classification is by the existing countries of the world in alpha- 
betical order. Under each country the grouping is by date, clearly printed at 
the head of each page, and then under the headings Army and Navy, Art, Science 
and Nature, Births and Deaths, Church, Letters, Society, State and Miscel- 
laneous. There is, moreover, an index of 290 pages, containing 125,000 entries, 
so that any event that can be even approximately dated or located can be found 
with a minimum of trouble. Great care has been exercised in securing accuracy 
and freedom from all bias in statement, whilst there can be little doubt that no 
other work of the kind exists which is anything like as comprehensive. The 
publishers offer to supply it on the system of deferred payments now so popular. 
Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. By J. K. Hoyt. Funk and Wagnall's 
Company, 1899. 
This is a very valuable book of reference. It contains 674 pages of English 
quotations, printed in double columns and arranged alphabetically under subjects, 
about 80 pages of Latin, and 44 of modern foreign quotations, an index of 
authors, and a concordance occupying 334 pages in closely printed triple columns. 
Flowers occupy 35 pages, arranged under the names of the species mentioned, 
and birds 18 pages, where, however— /inrrvrrn referens — the bat finds a place ! 
The quotations are sometimes too short, as, for instance, under “Nightingale,” 
where only the first four lines of Barnfield’s poem, quoted in our last issue, are 
given; and no quotations from the Bible are included; but these are the only 
faults we have to find in what is certainly a very practical book. 
Thoughts in many Minds on Animal Life. Gathered by II. C. F. Women’s 
Printing Society, 1899. Interleaved. Price 2s. in linen, is. stiff paper. 
This is a pretty booklet of fifty pages, designed to inculcate a feeling of 
reverence for all animal life as in itself mysterious. We could have wished that 
the compiler had given more detailed references to the source of the passages 
quoted than the mere names of their authors. 
In Birdland with Field-glass and Camera. By Oliver G. Pike. Illustrated 
with 83 photographs taken direct from Nature by the author. T. Fisher 
Unwin, 1900. Price 6s. 
Though he goes so far afield as Norfolk, Mr. Pike’s hunting grounds have 
been largely in the London district ; and in this book he gives us, classified 
under “Woods,” “ Fields and Hedgerows,” and “The .Stream and its Banks,” 
his impressions of many interesting species of birds, both common and rare. 
The photographs are mostly of nests, and though not uniformly successful, form 
an interesting supplement to the works of Mr. Kearton. They are printed as 
half-tone blocks on a highly glazed paper. Many of the anecdotes on the nesting 
habits of birds will be remembered by members of the North London Natural 
Flistory Society, who will be glad to have this memento of a paper read before 
that Society by Mr. Pike. 
Among the Bi 7 -ds in Northemi Shires. By Charles Dixon. With coloured 
frontispiece and 40 other illustrations by Charles Whymper. Blackie and Son. 
1900. Price 7s. 6d. 
As Mr. Dixon truly remarks in his Preface, “ The difference between the 
avifaunse of the northern and southern shires is strongly marked in many 
respects .... The important effects produced by latitude and climate 
upon the bird-life of these widely separated areas make material for fascinating 
investigation .... Unquestionably these northern shires, from an ornitho- 
logical point of view, are much more interesting than the southern.” We are 
glad, therefore, to have this “ popular introduction,” as the author styles it, 
written by so well-known and competent an authority. Classified according to 
the character of their habitats, almost every species indigenous in the district is 
included, and a chapter is added on Mr. Dixon’s favourite topic of migration, 
with special reference to the coasts of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. Though some 
of Mr. Whymper’s drawings seem to us rather hard, his name is a sufficient 
guarantee of the general excellence of his share in the work. 
