NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
53 
has found them. As we have often said, the sceptical should examine eoliths, 
not by themselves, but side by side with a series from neolithic through paixolithic 
types. 
Birds I have Known. By Arthur H. Beavan. Kisher Unwin. Price 5s. 
We do not know whether Bluebeard ever published a volume on “ Women 
I have known ” ; but certainly Mr. Beavan’s title might almost as well have been 
“ Birds I have Shot ” ; for he appears to have shot most of his avian acquaint- 
ances. He has visited many lands, Australia and South America among the 
number, but deals also with the birds of his Margate schooldays, of Cornwall, 
and of London. As a frontispiece, we are given an over-reduced copy of Wolff’s 
“ Golden Eagles ” in the Duke of Westminster’s collection ; but most of the 
other illustrations have a strangely archaic character, nor can we admire the 
cover which the publisher has provided for the volume. 
The Parents' Review for February contains an interesting article by Miss 
Laurie on “The Habitat of Plants.” It is, however, disfigured by too many 
misprints in the scientific names. We hope readers will not go away with the 
notion that Halophytes are necessarily “sand-plants,” the literal translation 
“salt-plants” would be preferable ; nor can we agree with the writer that July 
is the best month to see the Bog Asphodel ; for surely that very rare colour 
presented by the fruits in August is better worth seeing than the golden stars 
which many another species can surpass. 
The Totnesian for January, beginning a new volume, with 66 pages of matter, 
a photographic frontispiece and diagrams showing how to kick a football or 
maintain an aquarium, is an excellent number, whilst it contains one short story 
which alone is well worth a whole years subscription, viz., is. 6d. 
Notes and Comments for December and January contains several interesting 
notes dealing with the Great Auk, the Lace Wing, British Wild Beasts and the 
Height at which Birds Fly respectively. 
The Estate Magazine for February, in the course of an interesting article on 
“ Habit and Shapes of Forest Trees, calls attention to the descriptions of the 
forest oak by Evelyn and Gilbert White as being far more accurate as descriptions 
of forest trees as distinguished from park-grown specimens than those of Dr. 
Schlich or Professor Marshall Ward. 
Received : Bulletin of The New York Botanical Garden, vol. iii.. No. 9; 
The Plant World for December ; The Victorian Naturalist for January ; Our 
Animal Friends and Bird-Lore for January and February ; and The Irish 
Naturalist, Nature-Study (X.oO/i'fioodL), The Animals' Friend, The Animal World, 
The Humanitarian, The Agricultural Economist, and The Commonwealth for 
February. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
215. Squirrel and Cat : the Poetry in Names.— Archbishop Trench 
long ago taught us to look for fossil poetry buried in words, as are ammonities or 
ichthyosaurs in the rocks ; and the short account in our last number of a 
squirrel and some kittens is a further excuse for reproducing here the following 
paragraph from the Daily Chronicle. 
“ The slaughter of 3,988 squirrels by the Ross-shire Squirrel Club during the 
past year is part of a war that has long been waged in various parts of Scotland. 
At one time the squirrel bade fair to become extinct in that country, but the 
afforestation of the latter part of the eighteenth century saved it, and helped it to 
develop to the proportions of a plague. For the squirrel has a passion for the 
young shoots of trees, and its nibbling is apt to stunt the tree’s growth, fir buds 
and bark suffering particularly. And so hearts are hardened against the squirrel, 
in spite of its pretty ways and name — which, literally, means ‘ little shady tail,” 
