1/4 
NATURE NOTES. 
sacredness of life wherever we see it, we shall have ornaments 
free from the stain of blood, sport without torture, and deem it 
more womanly to go unadorned, than to be decked with 
mutilated birds, more manly to watch an animal full of joyous 
life in its native haunts, than to prowl after it with a gun. 
F. W. Ashley. 
A BOOK OF BEGINNINGS.- 
The collection of essays brought together in this handy little volume is due to 
an anxiety on the part of the editor to put before “ the Beginner ” (with a capital 
B) “ a clue to the many paths of the somewhat bewildering labyrinth called 
Natural Science.” The idea is excellent, and the execution on the whole 
satisfactory. 
Books of this kind often fail from the incompetence of the writers. Lady 
Isabel Margesson has avoided this pitfall by enlisting the services of practised 
and practical hands. Mr. J. A. Thomson writes on zoology, Mr. Warde Fowler 
on birds, Professor Geddes on flowers, Mr. Holmes on seaweeds, Mr. Bather on 
fossils, and so on ; while Mrs. Brightwen, Miss Edith Carrington, and Mrs. 
Suckling discourse respectively on Home Museums, on “ Observing without 
Destroying,” and Bands of Mercy. Sir Mount-.Stuart Grant Duff’s introduction 
is one of the pleasantest chapters in the book, though it is a little pedantic to 
object to Matthew Arnold’s calling the Colchicum a crocus. 
We are not quite sure whether it is the parent or the child whose instruction 
is especially aimed at, and a little consultation among the authors would have 
resulted in the recommendation of a more uniform series of books. Mr. Thom- 
son advises a course of reading beginning with the Water Babies, and ending with 
Weismann’s Germ-Plasm ; he suggests a very large number of works, including 
some in French and German, and — “such pride is hardly wrong” — four times 
refers to his own Study of Animal Life. Clodd’s Story of C>eation might have 
been omitted, and there is a little too much about evolution in the chapter. Mr. 
Warde Fowler’s little essay on birds is the best in the book, telling what and how 
to observe, and mentioning three or four works of reference — enough to be useful 
and not so many as to bewilder. There is no chapter on entomology — a curious 
omission. Professor Geddes is always interesting ; he too has written a book and 
various papers, to which he refers his readers, as well as to Mr. Thomson’s Study 
of Animal Life, which is a polite return to the author of that work, who com- 
mends Professor Geddes’s Chapters in Modern Botany. Like Mr. Thomson, 
Professor Geddes enumerates far too many works of reference ; and he should not 
recommend “ Grant Allen’s bright papers ” without a caution as to their want of 
accuracy'. It is only fair to say that he mentions the best simple and cheap 
books on the subject, though Mrs. Kitchener’s A Year's Botany does not find a 
place; and so poor a compilation as “ Thiseltons Dyer’s Folklore of Plants" 
does not deserve recommendation. Oliver’s FJementary Lessons in Botany" 
should be Lessons in Elementary Botany, and there are other slips, such as 
“ heiroglyphs ” and “calender,” which the editor should not have allowed to 
pass. The mosses, fungi, and .seaweeds are well done, and the position of 
Messrs. Prior and Bather at the Natural History Museum is a guarantee for the 
accuracy of their contributions on minerals and fossils. 
* A Handbook to the Study of Natural History for the use of Beginners, with 
an introduction by Sir Mount-Stuart E. Grant Duff, G.C.S.I., P’. R.S. Edited 
by the Lady Isabel Margesson. London ; George Philip. 8vo, pp. xx., 232. 
Price 3s. 6d. 
