72 
NATURE NOTES. 
than in other countries, and for that reason feeds great quan- 
tities of insects. If the air be hot and dry the gnats die of 
themselves, and even the swallows will be found famished for 
want, and fall down dead out of the air, their food being taken 
from them. In like manner, when cold weather comes in the 
insects all die, and then of necessity the swallows quit us, and 
follow their food wherever they go. This they do in the manner 
I have mentioned above, for sometimes they are seen to go off 
in vast flights like a cloud. And sometimes again, when the 
wind grows fair, they go away a few and a few as they come, 
not staying at all upon the coast. 
“ This passing and re-passing of the swallows is observed 
nowhere so much, that I have heard of, or in but few other 
places, except on the eastern coast, namely, from above Har- 
wich to the east point of Norfolk, called \Vinterton Ness, North, 
which is all right against Holland.” 
Gilbert White’s letters on migration were written over fifty 
years later. 
R. i\I.VRSHMAN WaTTSON. 
SHORT NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
Our anxiety to do justice to some of the books on our shelf by noticing them 
at length, seems likely to result in their not being noticed at all. In order to 
avoid this undesirable state of things, we propose to give a brief account of these, 
reserving to ourselves the right of returning to them at greater length, should the 
demands upon our space become less exacting than they are at the present time. 
At the head of our list we must place a beautiful volume v/hich comes to us 
from Messrs. Harper Brothers, New York. It is called Sharp Eyes, a title which 
is amplified into “A Rambler’s Calendar of fifty-two weeks among insects, birds, 
and flowers.” The author, Mr. William Hamilton Gibson, has, we observe, 
published other volumes of the same kind, and if they are in any way equal to 
this, it is to be regretted that they are little, if at all, known in England. It is 
no small tribute to the literary part of the book to say that it is as attractive in its 
way as are the charming illustrations which adorn almost every page ; such a 
combination of artist and observer — for Mr. Gibson is his own illustrator — is rare 
indeed, especially as a dainty humour finds expression both by pen and pencil. 
The behaviour of seeds and seedlings, the ways of butterflies and beetles, the foot- 
prints of beasts in the snow, the materials of birds’ nests and the nature of their 
songs — these and numerous other subjects, treated in the most delightful manner 
possible, make up one of the most charming books we ever remember to have 
seen. We do not know its price, but fear it must be somewhat expensive ; still, 
Selbornians are by no means confined to the less moneyed classes, and we are sure 
that no one who can aft'ord it will regret the outlay. 
Mr. Richard Heath’s volume on The English Peasant (T. Fisher Unwin, 
4s. 6d.), brings us face to face with a very different class of observations from 
those which employ Mr. Gibson’s facile pen. “The proper” — albeit at times 
depressing — “study of mankind” being man, Mr. Heath gives us a series of 
object-lessons which make up an interesting book. Their value, however, is 
somewhat depreciated by the fact that they represent periods varying from 1870 
to 1884, and largely the first five of these years. Things have moved rapidly 
during the last twenty-five years, and a good many changes, not always for the 
