CHRISTMAS BOXES. 
233 
devoted to birds, and half of them to bird’s-nesting. When we read Mr. 
Graham’s opening sentence — “ This is the healthiest, pleasantest and most 
interesting of all open-air recreations,” we trembled to think what Miss Edith 
Carrington would say ; but the author goes on at once “ to enumerate a few of the 
more flagrant offences ” of which boys are capable, and puts the case so clearly 
and with such an absence of exaggeration that no sensible boy can fail to avoid 
them. There are charming illustrations, and a great number of them — one to 
every two pages — not the old half-worn-out cuts which used to be thought good 
enough for books of the kind, nor such as have done duty so often that we are 
tired of the sight of them, but clear, useful pictures, showing the nests among 
their natural surroundings. Then we come to bird pets and birds for taming, 
whence by an easy transition to poultry, and so on to “miscellaneous pets,” 
rabbits, squirrels, “mice, and rats, and such smalt deer,” and then fishing and 
fishes. There is a delightful chapter on “ Rambling,” which reminds one of Mrs. 
Barbauld’s “ Eyes and no Eyes,” except that it is infinitely more interesting, and 
contains nothing so startling as the finding o.' mistletoe on an oak. The chapters 
on “ Autumn Berries ” and “ Poisonous Plants ” do not please us so much — some 
of the cuts are old friends, and others are very poor. It seems to us that the wild 
flowers should either have been omitted altogether or treated at greater length. 
To say sooth, we do not think Mr. Graham is at home in this part of his subject, 
otherwise he would not have given us a cut of a Helleborus to illustrate the white 
hellebore, which is, as he truly says, allied to meadow saffron. Some chapters 
on open-air games, where the author is once more at home, bring this delightful 
book to a close. 
Messrs. Cassell give us an attractive handbook of zoology in their Popular 
History of Animals for Young People (7s. 6d.), from the pen of Mr. Henry 
.Scherren. Beginning with a chapter on classification, we descend the scale from 
man down to “ the oldest and simplest animals,” of which Ettglena, Volvox and 
Ameeba are taken as types. Mr. Scherren has succeeded in carrying out his 
object — “ to give a short account of the animal kingdom in clear and simple 
language ’’—and by the aid of well-selected anecdotes and a somewhat miscel- 
laneous but numerous selection of illustrations, has produced a book admirably 
adapted for interesting intelligent children. In characterizing the pictures as 
miscellaneous we must not be understood as speaking disparagingly of them as a 
whole ; the majority are excellent, but some might be spared without detracting 
from the appearance of the book. A word must be said in praise of the pretty 
coloured plates, printed, we regret to see, in Germany, as we should suspect the 
text also of being, but that no announcement to that effect is made in the volume. 
These, to the number of nineteen, are coloured with much care ; each contains a 
large num.ber of figures, greatly reduced, but clear and attractive. A good index 
adds to the usefulness of the book. 
Another excellent specimen of foreign workmanship — this time bearing the 
words “printed in Bavaria” on the title — comes to us in the very handsome 
quarto volume on British and European Butterflies and Moths [Macrolepi- 
doptera), by Messrs. A. W. Kappel and W. Egmont Kirby (Nister, 25s.). 
Colour printing has lately been making rapid advances, but we have never 
seen more beautiful specimens than are presented by the thirty-eight plates 
with which this book is adorned ; they convey not only the colour but the tex- 
ture of the originals. The names of the authors are sufficient guarantee that 
the descriptions are carefully done, though, considering the title, it is a 
little startling to be told in the preface that “space has not permitted them to 
include all the European species, although most of those inhabiting central 
Europe have been dealt with, and nearly all those of the British Isles will be 
found described or figured.” The descriptions, of course, include notes on 
distribution, food-plants, and the like. When first we opened the volume at p. 
89, our eye fell on the statement that the dotted clay “ lives on low plants, 
especially monkshood {Atropa belladonna)," and this made us apprehensive lest 
slips of this kind should be of frequent occurrence. We have, therefore, tested 
the book in numerous cases, but have found no similar blunder. Among 
the many reasons which prompt the fruitless wish to be young again, the 
