i6 
NATURE NOTES. 
manners. As a contribution to the history of the past — a subject which must 
interest all true Selbornians, as it did him who made Selborne (famous — this 
monograph of London Pleasure Gardens is a book of permanent value, well 
worth the fifteen shillings which it costs. 
A Sketch of the Nat lira! History of Australia, with some Notes on Sport. 
by'Frederick G. Aflalo, F.R.G.S., F.Z.S., &c., illustrated by F. Seth; 8vo. 
■{^lacmillan, 1896, pp. xxviii. 307.) This is a popularly written, unpretentious 
and nicely got-up little book, illustrated by a frontispiece, map and numerous 
woodcuts. It consists mainly of a sketch of the most interesting animals belonging 
to the various groups of Vertebrate animals, each chapter being followed by 
a fuller list of species. The accounts given of the various animals differ much in 
length and value, being sometimes hardly more than a brief notice of name and 
locality, and at others including discussions on the origin, names and habits. 
The author ajipcars to have tried conscientiously to give the results of his own 
observations as far as possible, and this original matter lends more importance 
to the book than it would otherwise possess. In the section on fishes, there is a 
separate chapter on angling. The illustrations are numerous and characteristic, 
those of the birds, of which we are enabled to give a specimen, Iteing particularly 
good. The Invertebrata; are referred to an appendix, but much of this part of the 
book is too short and sketchy to be of any value. It would have been better 
either to have omitted the appendix altogether, or to h.ive expanded it into 
a separate volume. The following passage, descriptive of the illustration, is a 
favourable specimen of the author’s style : — 
