... THE first edition of Wild Fowl Decoys, by Joel Barber, appeared about twenty years ago, and very rarely indeed do copies come into the market, which is the measure of, its popularity amongst those who know a new edition (Dover Publications, with Mayflower Publishing Co. 65s.) is therefore very welcome. This is without any doubt a collector's piece in every sense written with the devotion and ...

... IN his preface to Game Shooting (Michael Joseph; 42s.), the author, Robert Churchill, says, the secret of straight shooting, like playing scratch golf, is constant practice, a steady temperament and knowledge of the game. And in the pages which follow he proceeds to teach as much as can be taught on paper of this compli- cated art-- constant practice is not to be found in words, but ...

... IN A Few Gypsies (Putnam; 12s. 6d.) Rupert Croft-Cooke discusses, through the medium of the short story rather than the essay, some traditions of these people, their history and habits. To-day the true gypsy is virtually extinct-- at any rate, he is a very rare bird on this side of the Channel, though there are plenty of didde- cais, casual farm labourers and suchlike folk who all-too-often ...

... TWO books dealing with lawn tennis are The Dunlop Lawn Tennis Annual and Almanack, 1955 (E. J. Burrow; 2s. 6d.), which has its usual complete records as well as articles by the former Maureen Connolly and by J. Drobny; and How to Play Tennis (Nicholas Kaye; 15s.), by Oscar Fraley and Charles Yerkow, con taining some 400 photographs in which shots are demonstrated by outstanding American ...

... WHY does a moth fly into a lamp? Insects use sun light as a directional guide, flying so that the rays strike their bodies at a constant angle. As the sun is so far away, the rays come virtually from the same direction; a lamp's rays, however, spread out in all directions, and the moth must bear to the left (or right) to make the angle of incidence of the second ray conform with the first, and ...

... RECENTLY there was pub lished in England Mammals of the World (G. G. Harrap; 60s.), by Francis Bourliere, a beautifully produced and important book. Numerous writers deal with birds, and often do so excellently, but nothing like so many books on animals have appeared in recent years. It is true to say that much of this gap is now closed by a volume which is most lavishly illus trated by ...

... A LITTLE book of great charm is Tree Tops (G. Cumberlege, O.U.P.; 6s.), by Jim Corbett, with an Introduction by Lord Hailey. The introduction explains that this story of the Royal visit to Tree Tops, the hunting lodge near Nyeri which was soon afterwards to be destroyed in the troubles, was finished just before the author died in April last. Lord Hailey gives a splendid portrait of a man who ...

... ONE cannot help feeling that in the past there has been fairly widespread ignorance about the game of cricket in Ireland-- an ignorance due to be eradicated from the mind of anyone who reads Cricket in Ireland (Kerryman, Ltd., Tralee; 15s.), by Patrick Hone, a delightful history of the game in those parts. And it is quite a long history, for the first game of which there is any record was ...

... IN an Introduction to his most interesting book, Profitable Forestry (Faber and Faber; 15s.), Lord Bolton writes: broadly speaking, it can be said that private woodlands of 100 acres or over should not show a loss in any year and, under good management, they will show a profit in almost all years. In the case of smaller woodlands the profit able years become progressively more intermittent ...

... A TALE of over fifty years of sports reporting, principally American, is contained in The Tumult and the Shouting (Cassell; 18s.), by Grantland Rice. There are pen pictures of great athletes in various spheres-- tennis players, boxers, and so on-- drawn very incisively with many interest ing behind-the-scenes touches which bring the subjects to life in fresh and sometimes unexpected ways. The ...

... ONE of the youngest of Britain's successful horse women, Dawn Palethorpe, has arranged in her book, My Horses and I (Country Life; 8s. 6d.), an instructive and inter esting collection of photographs recording her career from her earliest interest in ponies up to her achievements on Earlsrath Rambler. Her introduction, and the captions to the photographs, are refreshingly modest and simple in ...

... A BOOK that will certainly be very warmly welcomed by all wildfowlers and most other sportsmen is The Grey Geese Call (Herbert Jenkins; 16s.), by Bill Powell, a professional fowler on Solway who is guide, philosopher and friend to many folk who go up there from all over England to stay with him. Since some are ex perienced and others are complete beginners, he sees all sides of the ...