Welsh Journals

Life on the Sea Shore by John Barrett in this series, meets the clamorous demand for knowledge on this unfamiliar region. From the strange composition of seawater (enough gold for a sovereign in every 100 tons, and enough salt to enshroud the earth to a depth of 100 feet), to the Blenny and the Goby and the Goldsinny (with 214 sea-spiders in its stomach), the great unknown wastes that lie between the tides are expertly explored and expounded. Sponges, scallops, sandhoppers, seasquirts, spiders, starfish, sticklebacks, sea-urchins, scaleworms, sea-slugs, sea-hares, sea-cucumbers, seaweeds, sea-mice, saddle-oysters, to name but a few, are explained with considerable expertise. Woodlands by William Condry. As readers of his Exploring Wales will recall, William Condry has a pretty wit, and this characterises his book in this series. "Perhaps", he says, "in going to the woods we are making a return journey: we are going back to the forgotten world of our ancestors ."Be that as it may, Mr. Condry fills the reader with a desire to go, or return, to the woods; to see with new eyes sights and things, familiar and unfamiliar. His book leaves hardly a leaf, flower, tree, fungus, bird, insect or mammal of the woodland, past or present, unrecorded and unexplained. It is quite an achievement to have compressed so much fascinating information into 170 pages. The Observer's Book of Garden Flowers: David Py craft: Warne: 60p. In the popular series, which first appeared in 1937 and which is continually being up-dated and revised, this little book illustrates and describes some 150 annuals, biennials and perennials. Handy for the pocket or handbag, especially when visiting other people's gardens. British Moths (Books 1 and 2); George E. Hyde: Jarrold: 30p each. Two more booklets in the Jarrold Nature Series Books, with colourful photographs of species of different families, including hawk moths, prominents, noctuids, geometers and the strange Goat Moth, so-called because of the strong smell of its larva. There are forty photographs in each book, of moths male and female and caterpillars, almost all in colour, and a whole mass of information. An Introduction to Bird and Wildlife Photography: John Marchington and Anthony Clay: Faber: £ 2.95. Although there are many books written on wildlife photography, they are not all that intelligible to beginners, but this book has been written just for such people, and by experts. John Marchington is well-known for his photographs in various wildlife publications, and Anthony Clayton is the R.S.P.B.'s Film Officer: the former gives the general background information and deals with still photography, while the latter has written the section on movie photography. They are warmly commended, in a foreword, by Robert Dougall.