POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY.*

BIRDS still hold the field in works of popular natural history. Six of the nine books which we have selected for notice in this review deal with birds almost exclusively. But we will begin with two works, written by general field naturalists,

which deal with natural history from a variety of aspects, and treat of plants as well as animals. Mr. G. G. Desmond has managed to produce a very fresh and pleasing book on an old and trite subject. The Ring of Nature, written in charmingly simple style, describes the familiar changes of the seasons, the life-history of the plant and animal world—all the topics which White and Jefferies and hundreds of later writers have introduced into literature. His book will give some pleasure and some instruction to many lovers of Nature who know little about natural history. He writes so pleasantly of English woods and fields, of squirrels, voles, wild birds, and willows and moths, that one is sorry he should be driven in August to the seaside and in November to the Zoological Gardens. The naturalist's year, or calendar of the changing seasons, is marked by the solstice and the equinox and not by civil or ecclesiastical festivals. So, beginning with the hibernation of January, he devotes two chapters or essays to each month. Catkin-time, the coming out of bees, the arrival of migratory birds, hay-making and the caterpillar season, each provides a peg for his discourse. Only when he touches on the affinities and reproduction of Equisetum, the horse-tail, does he get hopelessly at sea. It is clear to the botanic reader that Mr. Desmond has not mastered the facts of the alternation of generations in plants. To write also of fungi (p. 266) " blossoming " and "setting seed" is more than an excusable slip. The belief that monkeys have many fleas (p. 33) is so widespread that it is forgivable. Monkeys, as a matter of fact, are among the few mammals that have no fleas. But generally Mr. Desmond shows himself a keen and accurate observer who can, as we have already said, please his readers with felicitous phrases.

The second book on our list deals with Wales. Mr. George Bolam is an all-round naturalist of a rare and old-fashioned kind. A botanist as well as a zoologist, an angler, and an otter-hunter, a good walker, and a lover of the open, he has also the merit of being a close observer and, we gather, a steady keeper of notes and journals. Nothing is too small to escape his notice, and some things that he records have, of course, often been observed before. But with certain defects Wild Life in Wales is an attractive book, and the reader soon gets to like the author in spite of the fact that his book would benefit by compression. There are some well-worn sayings, but many original notes on the doings of animals ; many pages which are but remotely connected with the wild life of Wales, but a vast number of reflections on the habits of bats, the unusual nesting-places of birds, Welsh sheep, the catching of trout and gwyniads, the sayings of mole-catchers, the differences between gnats and midges, the plumage of grouse or cuckoos. These are but a few of the topics that come into one's head after reading the volume. Mr. Bolam does not tell us how his book came to be written. We gather that he spent the better part of 1905 and 1906 at Llannwchllyn, in • (1) The Ring of Nature. By G. G. Desmond. With 4 Illustrations by 3.. Ley Pethybridge. London : Methuen and Co. [5s. net.]—(2) Wild Life in Wales. By George Bolam. London : Frank Palmer. [10s. 6d. net. — (3) Notes on Some Common and Rare British Birds. By J. E. H. Kelso, 5I.B.O.U. With 130 Illustrations from Photographs. London : J. & J. Bennett. [15s. net.]—(4) A Dictionary of English and Polk-Names o British Birds. By

H. Kirke Swann. London: Witherby and Co. [10s. net. 5) The Scout's

Book of Birds. By Oliver G. Pike, F.Z.S., F S ted by thi Author with 40 Photographs direct from wild nature. London : Jarrol and Sons. [2s. 6d. net.]--() The Bodley Head Natural History. Vol. British Birds : Passeres. By E. D. Curving. With Illustrations by J. A. Shepherd. London : John Lane. [Se. net.]—(7) Wild Birds Through the Year. By George A. B. Dewar. London : Herbert Jenkins. De. net. (8) Insects : Their Life Histories and Habits. By Harold Bastin. London : T. 0. and E. C. Jack. [7s. 6d. net.]—(9) Flowerless Plants : How and Where they Grow. By S. Leonard Bastin. With 4 Autochrome Plates and 79 IllustratiOni from Photographs by the Author, London : Cassell and Co. [6s. net.]

the heart of Merionethshire. Here he made friends with Welsh farmers and gamekeepers, many of whom are imported Scotsmen and terrible destroyers of feathered vermin. He watched and photographed the birds, he sugared for moths, he collected fungi, he fished the mountain streams and Bala lake, he dissolved and studied the pellets cast up by owls and ravens, he botanized, and he collected scraps of folklore and the Welsh names of animals. All the while he kept copious journals, and nothing escaped his notice. In summer he hunted otters ; in winter he tracked small mammals in the snow. This part of Merionethshire, the upper waters of the Dee, is a stronghold of the buzzard, peregrine, and merlin.

It is outside the area of the surviving Welsh kites. The illegal pole-trap is not yet stamped out. The polecat still exists. It is probably the headquarters of the marten in Wales. About all these and many other creatures Mr. Bolam has written what we venture to call a likable or even lovable book. It is diffuse and lacks arrangement, but the field naturalist will not fail to read it almost all with great pleasure and interest. There are many good photographs.

The next book is entirely ornithological. Dr. J. E. H. Kelso is a doctor of medicine in practice at Sonthsea, and he has apparently, since his childhood in Scotland, been an observer

and collector. His Notes on Some Common and Rare British Birds form the pleasant record of the lifelong watching of an

amateur wildfowling naturalist. He supplements his own

note-books with references to the Zoologist and British Birds. Most of his own observations refer to Hayling Island, to the

holidays spent on the Scottish coast, to various sea voyages, and to some trips in Morocco. Much that he has to say is familiar ; but he has studied the idiosyncrasies of different birds of the same species in nest-building and in singing.

The evolution of nest-building is an attractive subject. The book, which deals with each species in systematic order, is compiled in a familiar style without literary pretensions. A

certain number of proper names are misspelt, e.g., Dalglish and Pyecraft. and some of the references are vague. There

are many good -photographs of birds and nests. One (by Mr. P. Webster) of two Manx shearwaters fighting is very interesting and probably unique.

Mr. H. Kirke Swann must be congratulated on his industry in completing a work for which, as be tells us, he has been

collecting materials since 1595. His Dictionary of English and Folk-Names of British Birds, under five thousand entries, con- tains an amazing amount of curious reading. The accepted

English names are printed in capitals, and here will be found etymologies, legends, folklore, and references to early writers. Almost every page contains something interesting gathered from the most unexpected sources. The very names are often a pleasure to read aloud. Swainson's well-known book on the provincial names of birds was on somewhat similar lines, but Mr. H. Kirke Swann's diligence has added an immense amount of matter. There is a chronological bibliography at the beginning and references in brackets to the New " Hancllist of British Birds" (1912), whose nomenclature the reader may or may not be inclined to follow. Ornithologists have reason to be grateful for the vast amount of laborious care that has been spent on this dictionary.

We doubt whether- the next book justifies its title. The Scout's Book of Birds, by Mr. Oliver G. Pike, impels one to

inquire why " Scouts" should require a different book from other people. Mr. Pike, whose little volume is illustrated with good photographs, probably felt this too, for he opens his text by telling us that the alarm notes and flight of birds often betoken the presence of a human enemy. The rest of the text is not very conveniently arranged according to localities, "Mountain and Moor" or "Lanes and Meadows," &c. There are numerous personal anecdotes and some dis- cursive information about a number of common and a few uncommon birds. The Scouts seem to be forgotten after the opening chapter. But on the last page Mr. Pike truly observes that "Birdland" is a fascinating place, and "the more the Scout learns of its inhabitants the more he will want to know."

The first pretty little volume in "The Bodley Head Natural History " deals with British Birds from the thrushes to the wren. Further volumes, which will include British mammals, are promised. The last book, as we were specially told, was written for Scouts. The present little work, as we learn from the publisher's note, is designed to be " decorative as well as instructive." We think it must be written for women of fashion who dabble in ornithology. The slender text which Mr. E. D. Cuming has contributed is accurate and well com- posed, but the feature of the book, to most who buy it, will be the numberless little drawings by Mr. J. A. Shepherd. These, printed round the margin of the page, have a Japanese touch, and, considering that they consist only of a few strokes of the pen and rarely more than two rough patches of colour, are extremely clever. The three full pageplates are even more eccentric and Japanese, but not quite so successful.

The next book on our list deals chiefly but not entirely with birds. Wild Birds Through the Year is a new volume from the prolific pen of Mr. George A. B. Dewar, whose earlier work is well known. Most of the unconnected paragraphs of which the book consists are written from the south of England, and more particularly from Hampshire. A few deal with London and foreign parts. These paragraphs vary from a page to several pages in length ; they are always pleasantly written, coming as they do from the pen of an enthusiastic field naturalist and a tolerably close observer. But occasionally the material is hammered until it is rather thin, and the reader fancies that perhaps a weekly column in a newspaper had to be supplied. Mr. Dewar is a good hand at suggesting problems which have to be left unanswered in the present state of our knowledge. He loves the stars and the butterflies as well as the birds. He touches occasionally on plants. But birds are easily his favourites, and among these we expect Mr. Dewar would place first " the glorious swift." A good many scattered pages in the book are devoted to flight, without adding much to our knowledge of the problem and the method by which birds have solved it. Town dwellers, who are kept from the country, or who have not learnt to watch the doings of birds for themselves, will read these extracts from Mr. Dewar's discursive notes and diaries with satisfaction, and may also learn something about birds.

It is a pleasure to be able to recommend an excellent popular book on entomology. Insects : Their Life Histories and Habits covers a wide field, is up to date, in touch with modern work, and has the merit of being readable, and also devoid of all twaddle. These are rare qualities in a popular work on any branch of zoology. Mr. Harold Bastin has followed Dr. G. H. Carpenter's scheme of classification, which recognizes nineteen orders. He begins by describing the structure of an insect. The important month-parts are lucidly brought to the knowledge of the reader by plates on a large scale. He then in a series of about a dozen chapters gives, with notable success, a general view of insect life from various aspects. Senses, behaviour, protective resemblance and mimicry, food, courtship and reproduction, are treated in turn. Insect communities and the relation of the insect world to mankind are not forgotten. Although Latin names, technical terms, and the labours of systematists are never needlessly brought in, Mr. Bastin manages to steer a happy course between the scientific and the popular. The general reader will have nothing to unlearn, and may pass on to more serious works. There are a number of exceedingly good photo- graphs by way of illustrations, some of which are coloured. To give a general survey of insect life all over the world in a single volume is no easy task. This Mr. Bastin has done in a useful and attractive fashion.

The last book on our list deals with plants and plant life. Among the multitude of popular botanic works there is place for a good book on Flowerless Plants : How and Where They Grow. That is the title which Mr. S. Leonard Bastin has chosen; and though much of the volume is clearly written and shows that the author has a grasp of the wide and difficult subject which he seeks to make popular, he fails at several points. The uninstructed reader is never told the real dis- tinction between a seed and a spore. Mr. Bastin never tackles the alternation of sexual and sexless generations in plants; and it is no doubt a difficult subject to make intelligible. The reader who has finished the chapter which is called " A General Survey" will not have before him any clear idea of the distinctions between the great groups of plants, flowering or flowerless. The chapter on ferns and other " vascular cryptogams " gives a good popular account of the growth and reproduction of these plants. But we doubt whether the reader will understand why they are " vascular " or " crypto- gams." Mr. Bastin very wisely does not attempt to mention too many different species. This holds good also of the later

chapters, in which he treats of mosses, liverworts, algae, fuAg,i, and lichens. Throughout the book will be found many excellent photographs from nature, and technical terms are reduced to the fewest possible. The chapter on lichens is well composed, and gives a clear account of the symbiosis of fungus and alga. The account of the great group of plants known as Algae is compressed into a chapter of twenty pages. Here, as well as in the succeeding chapter on Fungi, Mr. Bastin gets over his difficulties successfully and puts much instruction into few pages. Unfortunately he is led into writing of the " roots" of seaweeds. There is a more serious blot in the chapter on mosses (p. 64), where he speaks of the " flowers" of mosses. Of course, Mr. Bastin knows they are not flowers. He makes apologies and excuses for the word. But the word is so incorrect and misleading that the beginner, who probably does not clearly understand what a flower is, will have much to unlearn. That is always a disaster. Taken as a whole, the book is very clear, and covers much ground with fair success.