A NATURE DIARY

The author of Watership Down makes no pretense that his most recent book is anything more than ""a very ordinary nature diary,"" and that it is. It is sometimes prettily evocative of the British countryside, and charming in an languorous, reserved way, but only the most ardent nature-lover will appreciate these frothy rhapsodies and methodical lists of every moss, starling, and fern that crossed the author's daily meander. Most of his walks are about his home on the Isle of Man, though he makes excursions to the Lake District, Copenhagen, London and even Australia. The entries touch upon ponderings of natural science, quote from English poets, and observe celestial bodies, but are primarily simple observations of flora and fauna. He tells what he saw, and, often turning to his 19th-century field guides, identifies each species and variation, including the Latin nomenclature. The book is very attractively designed, with handsome watercolors and sketches by John Lawrence illustrating virtually every page. Nonetheless, as a reclamation of the romantic obsession with nature of a bygone era, these sincere, cheerful, but scattered notes will appeal only to the most devoted wanderer and cataloguer of wood and field.