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opportunities, and may be said to have inherited this undertaking from his two 
predecessors, Professor Garrod and Mr. W. A. Forbes, whose premature deaths 
were such a loss to science ; but, though using their notes, he has added so large 
an amount of original matter as to make a most valuable contribution to our 
knowledge of the comparative anatomy of the different orders of birds. The 
book is in no sense a “ popular” treatise or one suited to beginners, so that it 
in no way supersedes Mr. Headley’s “Structure and Life of Birds”; but to 
such a position it makes no claim. We confess, however, to some disappoint- 
ment at the absence of any clear statement by the author of the scheme of classifica- 
tion which he intends to adopt. The table of contents (pp. x., xi.) is misleading 
rather than otherwise, Ornithurte, Anomalogonatte and Passeres being printed as 
if all of equal grade, and no indication being given as to where the Anomalo- 
gonatte terminate. All naturalists will be interested in the opinions of a specialist 
such as Mr. Beddard on the affinities of birds as a whole. “ As to the likeness 
with amphibians,” he says (pp. 153-4) “it is possible that the divergence of birds 
from the reptilian stem was at a time when the characters of the amphibian had 
been incompletely thrown off, and at a time also when the mammals diverged on 
their own path from a point near to that whence the birds took their origin. 
The general belief is in the origin of birds from some reptile stem, but there is 
not an absolute agreement as to precisely which group of reptiles birds are most 
nearly akin to.” As to the tempting comparison between pterodactyles and birds, 
he says (p. 158): “The main difficulty. . . . is in the fact that both can 
fly, and that each has acquired the power of flight by a different method. 
Having acquired the power of flight it seems clear that certain of the points 
of resemblance between them may easily be due to that mode of life, and may 
have been independently arrived at.” 
The Story of the Farm and other Essays. By James Long. Rural World 
Publishing Company, 8vo, pp. xv. and 158. Price is. 
This little volume, to the appearance of which we have before alluded, con- 
sists of a series of papers by an agriculturist of wide practical experience which 
have mostly appeared separately in magazines but yet form a connected whole, 
a progressive argument treated from a social rather than a purely political stand- 
point. The ownership and tenancy of land, glass cultivation, poultry production 
and female and unemployed labour are discussed, whilst the argument culminates 
in an affirmative answer to the question, “Can the British Empire feed its 
people?” Lady Warwick contributes a paper on her scheme for an agricultural 
training hostel, and cottage homes for women. The book is one which Members 
of Parliament will find a useful quarry. 
The Farmer and the Birds. By Edith Carrington, with preface by Canon 
Tristram, F.R.S. George Bell & Sons (for the Humanitarian League), 8vo, 
pp. xiv. and 204. 
Miss Carrington has made in this little volume a solid addition to her many 
services to the cause of humanity. She has collected together from many 
naturalists, and has stated with admirable conciseness, particulars as to the food 
of most of cur commoner birds. Speaking of them all as “workers” for the farmer, 
she finds a good deal to say even on behalf of such “ slandered workers ” as the 
owls, hawks, magpie, jay, wood-pigeon and house-sparrow, and includes in an 
appendix a useful summary of the various Wild Birds’ Protection Acts. 
Humane Science Lectures. By various authors. George Bell & Sons (for 
the Humanitarian League), 8vo, pp. viii. and 186. Price is. Cheaper re-issue. 
These lectures may have been more interesting to hear than they are to read. 
The first, on the need of a rational and humane science, contains some less arid 
illustrative passages ; but what are we to make of the following : — “ Let us take 
the science of physiology. At present this is mainly carried on by means of 
dissection or vivisection. But both methods are unsatisfactory. . . . There 
is, I believe, another method — a method which has been known in the East for 
centuries, though little regarded in the West — which may perhaps be called the 
method of health. It consists in rendering the body by proper habits of life, 
pure and healthy, till it becomes, as it were, transparent to the inner eye, and 
