NA TURA L HIS TOR Y NO TES 1 5 
Knowledge Diary and Scientific Handbook, 1901. Large 8vo. Knowledge 
Office. Price 3s. net. 
Almost every trade and profession has its special diaries and year-books, so 
that it was a good notion on the part of the proprietors of our valued contem- 
porary, Knowledge, to inaugurate the new century by supplying one for students 
of science. A whole large octavo page, ruled with 32 lines, for each day, 
gives ample diary space, besides pages for monthly notes and a page of cash 
account ; but eight pages for letters received and despatched seems somewhat 
inadequate. The distinctive features of the book, however, are the full 
astronomical ephemeris with star maps for each month, an excellent sketch of 
scientific progress during the nineteenth century, a calendar of events in the 
history of science, and other essays. We should wish that in future issues 
astronomy should not occupy quite such an exclusive position, as there are many 
physical constants which the man of science would wish to have at his elbow ; 
and we would beg also that advertisements should not find a place, at least, on 
the front page of the cover. 
My Peafoivl and my favourite Peahen. By Lady Alicia Blackwood. Operative 
Jewish Converts’ Institution, Hackney. Price 4d. 
This is a neatly got up little volume of stories, not only admirable in their 
motive, that of showing the cruelty of robbing birds of their eggs, but also con- 
veying much practical advice on the rearing of peafowl, written specially for 
children. 
The Birds of Lleyn, IVe^t CarnarvoJishire. By O. V. Aplin, F.L.S. Reprinted 
from The Zoologist for November, 1900. 
Mr. Aplin is so well known an ornithologist that this contribution towards a 
history of the birds of North Wales, the result of a fortnight’s visit in 1899, cannot 
fail to command attention. 
Penzance Natural History and Antiquariati Society. Reports for 1896-7, 1897-8, 
1898-9. 
These annual reports of a Society which dates from 1839 are good examples of 
w'hat we consider such reports should be, plain, business-like statements of work 
done with no attempt to include abstracts or partial accounts of papers read. 
The School Magazme : a Miscellany of extracts from the current literature of the 
day, books, magazines, neiuspapers, Sfc. Edited by David Campbell. Educa- 
tional Press, Dublin .Street, Edinburgh. No. I, August, 1900 ; No. 4, 
November, 1900. Price id. 
This little magazine of twenty-four small pages monthly is intended to serve 
as an extra reader in schools. The extracts include both prose and verse, are 
well chosen, decidedly interesting and carefully annotated. We are glad to see 
a section in each number devoted to Nature Study, and we wish the venture 
every success. 
Received : — The Victorian Naturalist for October and November, The 
Naturalist, The Irish Naturalist, Knowledge, Science Gossip, Humanity, The 
Animal's Friend, Our Animal Friends and The Agricultural Economist for 
December. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
How Rats carry Eggs. — This subject seems still to create interest, and 
I continue to have letters regarding it. One from Crewton, near Derby, says ; — 
“Seeing that you were the first to open up this question in Naturf. Notes, I 
tell you what a friend related to me that he witnessed on his father’s place at 
Belper, a small town just the other side of Derby from here. Late one afternoon 
he saw three rats crossing the yard from the direction of the fowl house ; one rat 
had a hen’s egg between its fore legs and its mouth, and was being carried by the 
other two, one at each end, that is, they were carrying in their mouths the other 
rat with its back downwards; and a day or two afterwards he heard such a 
.squealing noise in the fowl-house, more like that of a child than of a rat, so he 
went and opened the door, and there, behold you, was Mr. Rat on his back, 
