1/6 
NATURE NOTES. 
author has perhaps met a pressing want. Another chapter deals with MediiKval 
Bird Laws, some of which enjoined the destruction of certain of the crow family ; 
and the laws of the Victorian and Elizabethan ages are compared. But, as the 
author points out in his introductory remarks, beyond legislature, the private 
protection of areas as asylums, and the discouragement of feather wearing, another 
means of protection for our wild birds is that of providing them with facilities for 
nesting, such as nesting boxes, ledges, holes in trees or walls, thickets of shrubs or 
rank vegetation. The author has in this way induced no less than thirty-six species 
of land birds to nest in and around his garden, shrubbery and buildings, and the 
third part of his book gives us information from actual experience on the subject, 
as to the best means of carrying out this work. Every page should be studied 
carefully by those who wish to have birds’ nests in their gardens, for they will find 
all sorts of hints and information as to making their grounds attractive to birds 
and making the latter comfortable. Moreover, the book is beautifully illustrated, 
not only by nine full-page collotypes of most charming nesting sites, but also by 
numerous woodcuts (party in section) of suitable and useful nesting boxes. As to 
the hindrances to be met with in our endeavours to protect birds in the nesting 
season, the three most formidable are stated to be the small boy egg pilferer, the 
cat, and the house sparrow. For the second and third of these, the only real cure 
seems to be a drastic one ; for the first there seems to be no reliable cure, for the 
“salutary chastisement” in these days is too often called something else in a 
summons ! The last portion of the book consists of an enumeration of the 
various orders made by a Secretary of State under the Acts of 1894 and 1896 ; 
complete for the time being, and especially useful to naturalists visiting different 
parts of the country. O. V. A. 
The Concise Kttowledge Natural History, by R. Lydekker, B.A., F.R.S., 
V. P.G.S. ; R. Bowdler Sharpe, LL.D. ; \V. F. Kirby, F.L.S., F.E.S. ; W. 
Garstang, M.A., F.Z.S. ; B. B. Woodward, P'.L.S., F.G.S. ; F. A. Bather, 
M.A., F.G.S. ; R. Kirkpatrick ; R. J. Pocock ; and II. M. Bernard, M.A., 
F.L.S. ; with 530 original illustrations by J. Keulenians, F. H. Michael, Ernald 
W, Miles, Frank C. Aldworth, and other artists., pp. xvi., 771, 8vo. Price 5s. 
(London: Hutchinson & Co., 1897.) This volume of the Concise Knowledge 
Library is edited by Alfred II. Miles, and is a “Natural History” in the old 
sense of the word ; that is to say, it treats only of the various departments of 
zoology, or what in more old-fashioned days was styled the animal creation. But 
it is not in the least old-fashioned in anything more than its name. The days 
have gone by when one man used to attempt to write a history of birds, beasts and 
fishes, as well as creeping things ; and the present encyclopcedia of the animal 
kingdom is written by specialists, all of whom are distinguished as authorities and 
as original investigators. Another great advance made in this cheap and popular 
work is the substitution of original illustrations for those time-honoured figures 
which are so often hashed up for our entertainment. The new illustrations are 
very useful, for although they might have been a little more clearly reproduced, 
they do represent the animals, the names of which are to be found below them. 
The body of the work is preceded by a useful systematic index, and the whole 
seems to be what it aims to be, namely, “a concise and popular Natural History, 
at once accurate in statement, handy in form, and ready of reference.” It is well 
and clearly printed, and should find a place on the bookshelves of every 
•Selbornian. 
O. V. A. 
The jaded Londoner, enervated by the heat of summer, is under no small 
obligation to those who babble to him of green fields, and put within his reach 
practical facilities for making the most of his time on the few occasions when he 
manages to escape beyond the confines of the bricks-and-mortaropolis, as the man 
in the play called it. Our thanks then are due to Mr. Holliday for his second 
contribution to the series of rambles Over the Northern Heights. (R. E. Taylor 
& Sons, 19, Old Street, E.C., price 6d.) This little book de.scribes with care 
a number of attractive field walks in the neighbourhood of Windsor, Burnham 
Beeches, Uxbridge, Stoke Poges, &c. 
A. Ci. 
The Artist (A. Constable & Co.) for July is a “special ‘Nature’ number,” 
and is well worth the is. (net) charged for it. It contains a number of reproduc- 
tions of pictures and drawings of animals and birds by Mr. Archibald Thorburn 
