REVIEWS AND EXCHANGES 
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Charlotte group ; and a new vole, Microtus jniurus, and another shrew, Sorex 
cximius, are described from Cook Inlet. Bat little previous work having been 
done in the latter region, an attempt is made at a complete enumeration of the 
mammals and birds, but only a few of the larger plants are recorded. In the 
Queen Charlotte Islands, however, the explorers acknowledge the important work 
done by the late Dr. George Dawson, in 1878 and 1879, and give a fuller list of 
plants and also one of fishes. These, however, are mere lists, without notes or 
any collation of previous work, whereas the mammals and birds are more 
thoroughly treated. Excellent as preliminary sketches of the natural history of 
the districts, these memoirs are thus obviously incomplete. 
The Old Zoo and the New. By Edmund Selous. (Reprinted from The Satur- 
day Review.') Humanitarian League, 1901. Price 2d. 
“ Glaciers move : why should not the Society ? We can imagine that within 
a period not longer, perhaps, than has been slept through by some of the more 
ancient mummies in the British Museum, a change may have taken place.” Such 
is the severe language used by Mi. Selous of the management of the Zoological 
Gardens in the matter of cages, dens, &c. , or, as he terms them, “ The Bastille of 
the Beasts.” Mr. Aflalo and others have shown that individual Fellows have 
practically no voice in the management of the Gardens ; but it is to be hoped that 
a sufficient number of them will combine to make their opinions felt at the Annual 
Meeting, or in other constitutional ways, so as to bring about some reform. 
A Ready Aid to Distinguish the Commoner Wild Birds of Great Britain. By 
David T. Price. Gurney and Jackson, 1901. 
There can be little doubt as to the need of some such a handbook as this. 
“ There must be many,” says the author in his Introduction, “ who would like to 
be able, in their country rambles, to recognise the birds” ; and, he adds, “ it is 
hoped that this little book, carried in the pocket . . . may prove a knowing 
companion and simplify the process.” The book contains very brief — too brief, 
we fear — descriptions of about one hundred of the commoner species, “ written 
specially for the observer with a field-glass,” together with an index in which the 
birds are grouped into those of the garden, the woodland, cultivated and unculti- 
vated lands, the sea-shore, inland water-side and aerial. Each of these groups is 
then subdivided into those larger than a thrush, of the size of a thrush, smaller 
than a thrush but larger than a sparrow, of the size of a sparrow, or smaller than 
a sparrow ; and these sub-groups are again divided into a summer and a winter 
column, and two words as to colour added to each name. There are but sixty 
pages to the book and its cloth cover is light and flexible ; but why have the 
publishers made a pocket book 19 cm. high by more than 12 cm. wide? 
The South-Eastern Naturalist, being the Transactions of the Sotith- Eastern Union 
of Scientific Societies for 1901. Edited by J. W. Tutt, F.E.S. Elliot Stock. 
Price 2s. fid. net. 
In addition to 35 pp. of matter dealing with the Congress at Haslemere, and 
5 pp. devoted to the too brief list of members, this Report contains 55 pp. of 
matter of more purely scientific interest. When we say that the subjects dealt 
with include the address of the President, Mr. G. A. Boulenger, P'. R.S., on 
European herpetology during the last quarter of a century, the adaptation of 
seedlings to their surroundings, forms of moisture in the atmosphere, cuckoo’s 
eggs, the origin of the dead-nettles in Britain, the total eclipse of the sun in 1900, 
Nature-knowledge in elementary schools, the Local Corresponding Secretaries, 
of the Selborne Society, and the influence of use upon structural modifications, it 
will be seen that the Union appeals to every one of scientific tastes in the south- 
eastern counties. 
Eighth Annual Report of the Church Society for the Promotion of Kindness to- 
Animals for 1900. Church House, Westminster. 
We are glad of help to the cause of humanity from all quarters, though we 
doubt the necessity of multiplying societies on a sectarian basis, especially when 
salaries and travelling expenses swallow up half of an expenditure of ;^8oo a year. 
