152 
NATURE NOTES 
meets the requirements of that first class of his readers whom we represent in 
these columns, may be gathered from the statement that he is able to devote 
some six or eight pages to most well-known forms, such as the common frog, 
toad, or chameleon, and from the following passage referring to Testudo grceca 
and T. ibera-. — “The habits of these Moorish and Greek tortoises are very 
much alike, and since they enjoy the distinction of frequently being kept as 
pets in gardens, where they are allowed to look after themselves, a great many 
incidental and odd observations have been made on them. They are essentially 
vegetable feeders, but their taste varies individually and with the season, also 
according to the vegetation of the country they happen to come from. Most of 
them enjoy juicy plants, for instance, lettuce and cabbage ; the flowers of the 
dandelion attract them not merely by their bright colour ; clover is also a 
favourite food, and an enclosure of grass-land with clover in it is soon cleared of 
the latter ; grass is also taken, in default of anything better. Some of my 
specimens gradually bite large holes into gourds and pumpkins. ... In 
close captivity they often learn to take and to like bread soaked in milk or 
water. They drink slowly and at length, but scarcely ever when they have 
succulent food. There is one thing which they do not eat, namely, “ black 
beetles,” although they are warranted to do so by the men who hawk them 
in the streets. Worms, slugs, &c., are often mentioned as part of their 
occasional diet, but I am not aware that any of the hundreds which I have 
watched have taken such creatures, in spite of every opportunity. Their 
habits are very regular. They learn to know the geography of their domain 
thoroughly. . . . Although their mental capacities cannot possibly be called 
brilliant, they soon learn to distinguish between different persons, and they will 
come up to be fed, but their memory for localities is surprising. . . . Dr. 
Girtanner of St. Gallen in Switzerland testifies to their appreciation of music 
. . . . That they can hear, although their ears are not visible, but covered 
by the ordinary skin, is obvious enough from the fact that during the pairing 
season they emit feeble piping sounds. . . .” Gilbert White’s specimen of 
T. tbera, the shell of which, nearly ten inches long, is now in the Natural 
History Museum, South Kensington, seems to be one of the oldest specimens 
w hose age — over fifty-four years — is approximately known. It is unnecessary to 
say that Dr. Gadow adequately discusses such topics as the change of colour in 
chameleons, the poison of snakes and that remarkable persistence of larval con- 
ditions known as “ neoteny,” which is most typically exhibited by the Mexican 
Axolotl. More purely anatomical questions, except those of systematic import- 
ance, such as the chondro-skeleton, the organs of special sense and the parietal 
foramen are, perhaps, passed over somewhat too briefly ; and, though it is but a 
small matter, the tables of the classification adopted, given on pp. xi. and lo, do 
not agree, owing to the omission of any statement that “ Stegocephali ” and 
“ Phractamphibia ” are synonymous. By the courtesy of the publishers we are 
able to reproduce some specimens, which specially illustrate our British forms, 
out of the i8l illustrations, which, with a coloured physical map of the world, 
add to the attractiveness of a work which even the most “general” reader will 
find unexpectedly interesting. 
Bird Watching. By Edmund Selous. Messrs. J. M. Dent and Co. Price 7s. 6d. 
net. 
We rejoice to know that a new sport has arisen in our day — a sport against 
which the most critical moralist has not a word to say. Field-glasses and tele- 
photoscopes are replacing the gun in the hands of the naturalist ; and, as Darwin 
discovered early in his “ Beagle ” voyage, there is after all a greater fascination 
in watching the life of animals than in compassing their death. Mr. Selous has 
felt this fascination to the full, and in this dainty volume has, in a truly scientific 
spirit, given us his own observations, unmixed with hearsay or quotations from 
authority, and in the main unqualified by speculative deductions. The present 
work deals mainly with plovers, doves, snipe, gulls, ravens, rooks, guillemots, 
sand-martins and a few other species ; but we are pleased to see hints in one or 
two places that we may at some future time have a further instalment of these 
observations. As the book is illustrated with six photogravures, besides other 
illustrations, all from the well-known pencil of Mr. J. Smit, it seems to us pheno- 
