l6 
NATURE NOTES. 
, plants and insects, of colonists and Boers, and of the manners and customs of both. 
It is, in fact, a brightly-written record of “ several busy and most enjoyable 
years,” chiefly, but by no means wholly, devoted to ostrich-farming. Readers of 
N'.vi'ure I\’otes have long since been set at rest as to the occurrence of cruelty in 
connection with the obtaining of ostrich feathers ;* and it is satisfactory to learn 
from Mrs. Martin that cruelty is not only unnecessary, but does not pay — a con- 
sideration which will weigh with many who are not influenced by higher motives. 
The slumps of the feathers which have been plucked can be pulled out when 
mature without hurting the bird. “Some farmers, anxious to hurry on the next 
crop of feathers, are cruel enough to draw the stumps before they are ripe ; but 
Nature, as usual, resents the interference with her laws, and the feathers of the 
birds which have been thus treated soon deteriorate.” The accompanying cut of 
“ ostrich chicks ” is one of several with which the volume is adorned. 
Mr. John Watson's Nature ami Woodcraft (Walter Smith and Innes) ought to 
have been noticed before. It is one of the many books which, if they do not owe 
their existence to Richard Jefferies, at any rale belong to the same class of 
literature. We do not complain of their abundance. The field of Nature is in- 
exhaustibly wide, and as long as authors will write down what they actually 
observe, they are as little likely to become tedious or monotonous as is Nature 
herself; for no two observers see exactly the same thing. Mr. Watson’s observa- 
tions have been made for the most part in Cumberland ; he tells us of the 
“ statesmen ” of a hundred years back, and of their modern representatives ; of the 
gamekeeper and his museum, which, as usual, contains many a bird which should 
have been allowed to live ; of birds and beasts, and insects and trees, and of local 
manners and customs. Here and there — as in the one on “Autumn Berries” — 
we come across chapters which suggest a less intimate knowledge of the objects 
described than is found in the best books of this class ; but the volume is an 
interesting one, and cannot fail to give pleasure. There are excellent illustrations. 
!Mr. Charles Dixon has added another to the series of bird-books with which 
his name is associated, in The Birds of our Rambles (Chapman and Hall, 7s. 6d.); 
and it says much for his knowledge of his subject that he is thus able to multiply 
books without exposing himself to the charge of either repetition or book-making. 
The present volume, which is illustrated by !Mr. A. T. Elwes, is intended as “an 
introduction to the study of Field Ornithology.” Various habitats are visited in 
turn, beginning “round about the homesteads,” and so through the garden and 
shrubbery, along the lanes, across the fields, through the woods and so through 
other bird-haunted spots until we end “ by sandy shores,” among plovers and 
sandpipers. It is an interesting as well as an instructive book ; but we are sorry 
that Mr. Dixon feels is necessary to denounce so violently a reviewer who criti- 
cised one of his foimer works unfavourably. We hope he will not deal with us in 
like manner if we point out that, good and useful as his book is, its usefulness 
would be greatly increased by the presence of an index. 
Messrs. Gay and Bird send us a very pretty book from across the Atlantic, 
entitled Our Common Birds and how to know Them, by Mr. j. B. Grant (6s.) Its 
oblong octavo form has at any rate the charm of novelty; the typography is excel- 
lent, and the sixty-four plates are from “ photographs of specimens mounted by an 
expert taxidermist.” They are good and useful, but they shout out “Stuffed ! ” 
with, as it seems to us, unnecessary clearness. Many Selbornians w'ill be glad in 
this way to make acquaintance with the “common birds” of their transatlantic 
cousins ; and to see at any rate the portraits of those with whose names they are 
familiarised by American literature, such as the “ sapsucker,” whom we meet 
with in the pages of Uncle Remus. The book is very cheap, and will, we hope, 
find a hearty welcome in this country. 
We have received the volume for 1891 of our contemporary The Field Club 
(Elliot Stock, 4s. 6d.), the serial issue of which has more than once been noticed 
in Nature Notes. Such magazines deserve all support, and the volume before 
us contains much interesting matter. We do not, however, think it was worth 
while to reprint T. F. Fotster’s monthly calendar ; and the pages on poisonous 
plants are not very carefully compiled. 
See Nature Notes for March, 1890. 
