BOOK NOTICES
79
It is, however, by the habitat studies that this work is raised above the
usual run of floras. Hertfordshire is divided for this purpose into six
main areas, based largely on the surface geology. Within each, a series of
studies in depth of the plants within an area of five yards radius (why,
one wonders, not five metres?) produces a valuable record of the plant
associations of the area. The 31 photographs mostly illustrate these
habitat study areas.
This is all that a country flora should be, and Dr Dony, his helpers, and
the publishers of this book, the Hitchin Urban District Council, deserve
our warmest congratulations on their venture.
Shell Nature Lover's Atlas of England, Scotland and Wales. By James
Fisher. Ebury Press and Michael Joseph, July 1966. 49 pages, 32
maps. 7/6.
This little atlas fills a noticeable and, for naturalists, serious gap in the
available gazetteers of the British Isles. It gives lists of National Parks,
areas of outstanding natural beauty, national and private nature reserves,
field work centres, S.S.S.I.'s, some geological sites, "zoos", arboreta and
botanical gardens. These are listed, and briefly described facing the
appropriate map, numbered and grid referenced. Also included is a list
of addresses of national and local naturalists' organisations, and a
gazetteer.
The maps are necessarily on a small scale, but are clear. The whole is
well produced, attractively designed, and will make an invaluable
addition to any naturalist's holiday in Great Britain.
The Handbook of Foreign Birds in Colour. Volume 2. By A. Rutgers
(English editor, K. A. Norris). Blandford Press, 1965. 230 pages,
including 64 colour plates. 19/6.
This, the second volume of the work noticed in The Essex Naturalist
for 1965, completes the coverage of foreign birds which can be kept in
captivity. The present volume includes Pheasants, Quails, Pigeons, Ducks
and waterfowl, Parrots and their relatives, and also has an appendix
devoted to the Budgerigar. Detailed information is given on the con-
struction and layout of outdoor aviaries for the hardy species. This book
is principally concerned with the care of these exotic birds and, as such,
will make a valuable reference book to those enthusiasts who share this
interest. It also contains chapters on mutation and heredity in bird breed-
ing. The original text appeared in Dutch and the English edition shows
signs of stress in translation, some sentences having a remarkably lop-
sided construction. Nor is the text free from uncorrected errors,
"Habsburg lip", "omniverous", for example, and "hereditary formulae"
does not equate to formulae concerned with heredity.
The colour plates are of a high quality and the photographs convey
very well the exquisite beauty of many of these birds, which are, of
course, amongst the most beautiful in the world.