245 
REVIEWS AND EXCHANGES. 
Houit, Garden and Field : a Collection of short Nature Studies. By L. C. Miall, 
F.R.S. Kdward Arnold. Price 6s. 
Anything dealing with natural science or with education from the pen of so 
distinguished a worker in biology and so successful an educationalist as Professor 
Miall, is sure to be of interest and of value. The present work is mainly 
addressed to teachers in training and is intended to suggest and direct the plan- 
ning of Nature-study lessons rather than to provide such lessons ready-made. 
Some of the tifiy-four sections into which it is divided, such as those on Old 
English Gardens, Natural History ('lubs and Rare Specimens, can hardly be said 
to serve this purpose directly, interesting as they are ; whilst, considering that 
the book is not meant as a laboratory-guide, we fail to see any reason for the 
apparently intentionally hap hazard arrangement or di.sarrangement of its topics. 
Here, however, our fault-finding ends. We differ from the author as to the value 
of museum demonstrations, unspecialised excursions and local lists ; but there 
can be no question as to the excellence alike of the matter and of the expository 
method of the lessons themselves. Several subjects recently discussed in our 
pages are here admirably elucidated, such as Honey-dew, The Freshwater 
Aquarium, The Glow-worm, The Frog-hopper, and the Death-watch ; whilst in 
some few cases, such as the lesson on the human hand, the Professor allows him- 
self to be more anatomical than is usual in the teaching of Nature-study. Mr. 
Hammond’s illustrations are always adequate, as examples of which we would 
specify those of the water-lilies, and, if we were compelled to single out any 
chapters as being in our opinion more interestingly novel than others we should 
be inclined to choose that relating to these plants and that on the Wood-sorrel. 
Notes on the Natural History of the Bell Rock. By J. M. Campbell. David 
Douglas. Price 3s. 6d. net. 
This little book, somewhat highly priced, seeing that it contains but 130 pages 
and is almost without illustrations, is the Journal from April, IQOI, to April, 1904, 
of the Assistant Lightkeeper, whose tastes lie mainly in the direction of ornithol- 
ogy. It contains many interesting notes, as of a sitting gannet extracting, “ one 
by one, as many as six full-grown herrings” from the mouth of the male bird, of 
the hen-ware, or badderlock, increasing a foot in length in six weeks, or of the 
black-back gull devouring not only the eggs or young of the grouse, but even the 
sitting bird herself. The following is an excellent description of the modus 
operandi of the oyster-catcher as a limpet-picker : — “ Wading an inch or so deep, 
where the limpets were probably opening to the influence of the incoming tide, 
he appeared to make a judicious selection ; then, with a single sidelong blow of 
his chisel-like bill, he turned the no doubt astonished mollusc upside down. 
Seizing it in his bill, he carried it to a still dry portion of the Rock, and in a 
twinkling he had the limpet out of its shell, and journeying up his long bill to its 
doom. The tio of the upper mandible appeared to do the .scooping out, while 
the lower merely acted as a resistance outside the shell, the operation being per- 
formed more quickly than even the adroit oyster-man turns out his wares on the 
half-shell.” 
The Published Records of the Land and Fresh-water Mollusca of the East Riding, 
with Additions. By T. Petch, B.Sc., B.A. With Thirteen Sketch-Maps 
showing Distribution. A. Brown and Sons, Hull. Price is. 6d. net. 
This excellent piece of work is a “ separate ” from the 7 ransactions of the 
Hull Scientific and Field Nattnalists’ Club. The sketch-maps, showing, as they 
do, discontinuous areas of distribution, require for their elucidation either a large- 
scale ecological map or a very full description of the characters of soil and 
vegetation in the various scattered habitats. 
Homeland Handbooks, No. 34. Dunstable ; The Downs and the District. By 
Worthington G. Smith. Homeland A-Ssociation. Price is. paper, 2s. cloth. 
This is a pocket edition of the more expensive Dunstable : its History and 
Surroundings, which we noticed a few months ago, abridged by the omission of 
