Sidelights on Birds. By H. Knight Horsefield. (Heath Cranton- 12s.
6d. net.)
This book, by the Natural History Editor of the Yorkshire Weekly Post, contains some delightful chapters suggesting the possession by birds of occult senses. Anyone who has watched birds must often have wondered if they dipped for their wisdom in the well, of subconsciousness. Here is a particularization of this idea. The theory that they, in common with butterflies and other creatures, are subject to magnetism and are able to pick up vibrations, is so strange and lovely that one feels it must be true. One's criticisms on a book dontaining so much accurate knowledge are very small ones. Should not " long-tailed field mouse," page 35, read " long-tailed titmouse ' ? Would not " twittering " describe the dipper's song better than " gurgling " ? Has any reader seen a cock bullfinch sitting on the eggs, or with a beak like a goldfinch, or with so much black under his chin, as in the picture facing page 88 ? The present writer has not. .Apart from these trifles this is an enchanting book. Round The Year in Richmond Park. By H. R. Hall. (Selwyn
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