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[Book details...]
Design with nature. Ian L. McHarg, Natural History Press, Garden City, New York. US$19.95.

[Book details...]
Australian seashores in colour. Text: John Yaldwyn; photographs: Keith Gillett. A. H. and A. W. Reed. $3.50.

[Book details...]
The grasslands revolution in New Zealand. P. W. Smallfield. Hodder and Stoughton, Auckland; in association, with the English Universities Press, London, $3.60.

[Book details...]
Mammals in Hawaii. P. Quentin Tomich. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, Hawaii. US$5.00.

[Book details...]
Wild animals in New Zealand. Compiled under the direction of A. L. Poole, Photographs by J. H. Johns, A. H. and A. W. Reed. Price $4.50.

[Book details...]
Molesworth, L. W. McCaskill. A. H. and A. W. Reed, Reed, Wellington. $4.50.

A modification of Heinicke's method for measuring light by the photo-decomposition of uranium salts is described. Partially masked glass tubes of uranyl nitrate/ oxalic acid solution are expected to light for several days and the decomposition, shown to be linearly dependent on the amount of light received. is found by titration. Tests in artificial light and natural forest show that the method is applicable to a wide range of light intensities. It is simple and cheap enough for extensive use in ecological investigations.

Sightings by residents and visitors to Kapiti from 1906-1969 indicate one small colony of bats with a steady population of about 12 located south of Rangatira. The flight pattern. times of emergence and the lack of sightings during winter suggest that the long-tailed bat (Chalinolobus tuberculatus Forster) may be the only species present. The 1907 report by Cockayne that the long-eared bat was abundant is taken as a misprint for long-tailed bat and not the rarer short-tailed bat (Mystacina tuberculata Gray).

Evidence of the existence, in parts of the South Island, of a native otter-like mammal called by the Maoris the waitoreke is re-examined in the light of a theory that it could have been introduced by man. Its possible origin and zoological classification are discussed, and fields suggested for further research.

[First paragraphs...]Because of the demand for greater production, the farmers' attention is constantly being directed toward those areas of their land which are non-productive. Inevitably wetlands—swampy gullies, lagoons or lakes—come under close scrutiny. Soils underlying wetlands are usually very fertile and some of New Zealand's best dairy lands have been derived from them. Balham (1952) recorded the extent of this development in the Manawatu district at that time.