Signs and Seasons. By John Barroughe. (David Douglas.)—Mr. Burroughs is
a very keen and sympathetic observer of Nature. He has taught some of us, in his charming " Hunt after a Nightingale" (we quote the title from memory), to appreciate more fully the beauties of our scenery and the life of our streams and woods. In the very pleasing volume that we have now before us, it is of things Trans- atlantic that he writes,—chiefly, indeed, of birds, their ways, their dwellings, and other things that concern them. There is now and then a touch of sport. " A Taste of Maine Birch," for instance, is a charming little story of camping-oat in Maine, a country in which the birch-tree has a prominent place, especially as furnishing the canoe. In Maine, we hear of "Pleasant Pond," where the trout can be caught, it seems, only on hooks baited with salt pork, and these mostly by native hands, the fish resenting or neglecting the baits offered by strangers. From this we are transferred to another lake, where the trout, it is satisfactory to learn, have better taste. They will take a fly, but mostly require to have it sunk ; rising, or rather striking at it, when it is about half-way up from the bottom to the surface. Here, too, we have a considerable element of human interest, "Uncle Nathan," the sportsman's "guide, philosopher, and friend," being a sort of " Leatherstocltieg " in a small way, and adapted to quiet times.
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