BOOK NOTICES
77
it an annual event. There was also progress with the Badger
Survey and the National Distribution Scheme for mammal
records; both these items were mentioned in the bulletin of the
organising body, The Mammal Society. The number of fully
recorded Badger setts was returned for 1966 as 64 and new setts
were still being found. Distribution scheme returns for Essex
showed that there were mammal records for all but six of the
10 km squares.
Group Meetings in 1966 were well attended; in February the
Group A.G.M. was held with members' notes and exhibits together
with four mammal films. A live mammal trapping meeting was
held in March at Coptfold Hall, Margaretting, and a Badger
watching evening in April when three parties watched setts in
different parts of the county. Two parties saw Badgers, or heard
them at close quarters, but the third was unlucky. During the
second half of the year there was a mammal study week-end at
Fingringhoe Wick Reserve in August, the very successful Bottle
Hunt in September, and live mammal trapping at Little Leighs
in October. A meeting in November was held at the British
Museum (Natural History) when a party was given a conducted
tour behind the scenes in the Mammal Section. Dr G. Corbet was
thanked for showing the party round after a most informative
afternoon.
A. Heathcote, Chairman.
D. Scott, Secretary.
Book Notices
Woodland Life. By G. Mandahl-Barth (editor: Arnold Darlington).
Colour plates by Henning Anthon. Blandford Press, 1966. 179 pages,
including 97 colour plates. 18/-.
It is not possible to commend this book too highly. It fills a most
remarkable gap in habitat reference books; with it, the natural history of
woodlands is at last made intelligible for all comers and in a single volume.
All naturalists, countrymen and lovers of the woodlands will find this
work useful, and even the serious student will still find it of the greatest
value in filling in gaps in the literature of all aspects of woodland life.
Woodland Life includes nearly seven hundred invertebrates found in
woods. The range is extensive and comprises earthworms, snails, slugs,
beetles, lepidoptera, woodlice, centipedes and spiders amongst others.
Obviously it is not an exhaustive treatise, but it does include the import-
ant animal species which can be identified without recourse to elaborate
technical apparatus. Mr Darlington's skilled editorship has produced
pleasantly readable and informative short texts describing each organism.