Eton Nature - Study and Observational Lessons. By Matthew Daven- port Hill,
M.A., and Wilfrid Mark Webb. Part II. (Duckworth and Co. 3s. 6d. net.)—It is not easy even to describe this book, so great is the variety of subjects treated and so rapid the change from one subject to another. The object, of course, is to keep the observing faculties of the learner on the alert. Nihil naturale a se alienum putat. We may take pp. 53-77, containing, as they do, the studies and lessons for the early part of the third, or summer, term. (Chap. 24 gives "Work for the Easter Holidays.") Observational Lesson XXIII., then, has four parts "A Tuber," "A Woodlouse" (both continued from earlier lessons), "An Opening Flower," "Silkworm Eggs." Chap. 25 carries on the subject of flowers. Lesson XXV. deals with "An Opening Flower," "A Silkworm," "A Bee"; and chap. 26 describes a hive which can be observed. Lesson XXVI. continues the subjects of Lesson XXIV. In chap. 27 we are told how to make a formicarium, and have some remarks on ants. Certainly the "domesticated animals," "hangers-on," and " scavengers " of the ants' nest are one of the most curious phenomena that Nature has to show us. It is very strange that this highly developed social system should be found in a creature so remote from the being in whom we find the greatest development of all the instincts and powers.
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