Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/359

Rh and an Oak; but when we approach what may be called the introduction to organic life, we may well hold with the author, "that there is no absolute criterion for determining whether a given unicellular or few-celled organism is a plant or an animal."

Such axioms really lie at the base of all biological philosophy, and to have them taught early is to have them taught well.

is the latest addition to our local lists of British birds; it is confined to "Ackworth and the neighbourhood around for a distance of from three to four miles"; the soil is for the most part loam or clay, and in some places is marl; it is about fifty miles from the sea-coast at its nearest point; the river Went—a small stream tributary to the river Don—runs through the centre of the district, which also includes the lake at Nostell and Hemsworth Dam; while against these natural beauties we read that "half-a-dozen collieries are worked within, or close to, the district, towards its northerly and westerly confines."

The total number of species enumerated is 149, of which 54 are permanent residents, 26 regular summer residents, 9 regular winter residents, and 60 visitors. We are glad to find "that, in spite of the arts and designs of the gamekeeper, the Magpie is common in all wooded parts." In connection with this bird an observation by a local farmer is recorded, of five Magpies surrounding a Fox who was devouring a Rabbit, and on his being disturbed picked up the remainders. A "Rooks' parliament," as witnessed by Dr. George Wood and the first Lord St. Oswald, is an example of what has been loosely called the romance of natural history. "A multitude of Rooks were formed up in a large ring, in a field, round a solitary, dejected-looking member of their species, and were making a great noise and flapping of wings, the only silent and quiet bird being the miserable individual in the centre of the ring. All at once there was perfect quietude and stillness, which lasted a minute or two, when suddenly the noise was resumed with unabated vigour, and the birds forming the ring closed in upon the unhappy one and