MORE BOOKS ABOUT ANIMALS.*
AMONG the numerous books about animals which are now being issued by the publishers and, we believe, eagerly bought by an ever-increasing body of readers, many depend almost entirely on the camera. Photography has naturally done great things in providing a mass of cheap illustrations for popular and scientific books of zoology. We have, however, put first upon the list a book which depends for its success on pure literary merit. Mr. J. C. Tregarthen has added another delightful book to his series of animal biographies. This time he has chosen The Story of a Hare. He lays the scene in Cornwall at the beginning of last century. His writing is full of delicacy; and many happy phrases bring to the reader's mind the Land's End, the wild coast scenery, and the spirit of the open country. His knowledge of the habits of hares is complete, but the writer of animal stories is exposed to a difficulty. If be merely chronicles the doings of his animal the tale lacks human interest. If he plunges into the unknown depths of animal psychology be is bound to attribute human intelligence to his animal hero. Mr. Tregar then inclines to the latter course. We do not criticise him for this. Many passages in his charming little story give the hare, and to a lesser degree the other animals, human, powers of feeling emotion and of reasoning. The real thoughts of animals, he declares in the preface, "must ever remain a matter for speculation." The result is a tale of the Cornish wild, in which rustic men, smugglers, and hunting squires enter into our hare's story, as well as foxes, otters, and polecats.
From the hare we take the reader to deer. In a slender volume of large print, illustrated with some excellent photo- graphs, Mr. Walter Winans embarks on a subject which has • (1) The Story of a Hare. By J. C. Tregarthen, F.Z.S. With illustrations. London: John Murray. [6s. net.]—(2) Deer-Breeding for Fine - Had By Walter Winans, F.Z.S. Illustrated with photographs. London: Rowland Ward. (12a 6d. net.3—(3) Dogs and their Masters. Compiled by Marion ChappelL London : Smith, Elder and Co. [5e. net.) —(4) Creature-Life in Australian Wilds. By Cyril Grant Lane, B.E.N.A. London: Henry J. Drane. [10s. 6d.]—(5) The Game-Rirds and Water-Fowl of South Africa. By Major Boyd Horsbrugh, hf.B.O.U., F.Z.S. With Coloured Plates by Sergeant C. G. Davies, M.B.0.11., &c. London: Witherby and Co. [Et 14s. net.] —(6) The Life of the Spider. By J. H. Fabre. Translated by Alexander Teixeira de. Mattes. With a preface by Maurice Maeterlinck. London : Hodder and Stoughton. [6s. net.)—(7) The Bnlontslogist's Log-Book and Dictionary of the Life Histories and Food Plants of the British Macro-Lepidoptera. Br Alfred George Scorer, F.E.S., am London : George Routledge and gone.. [7s. 6d. net]—(8) The Zoo Conversation Book. Bughis's Second Visit. Br Edmund Selena. Illustrated by J. A. Shepherd. London: Mills and Boon. [5s. net.]
never received much attention from owners of deer-parks and deer-forests in this country. In Deer-Breeding for Fine Heads we have notes based on extensive personal experience. Though few owners of forests appear to grasp the fact. Scotch stags are the worst in Europe. This is not surprising when so little is done to improve the breed, and the best males, instead of the worst, are consistently killed by stalkers. That feeding and care will work wonders Mr. Lucas, of Warnham, has shown with park stags. Mr. Winans's breeding and feeding experiments have also been successful. His paddock deer get pills of horn-producing physic buried in their tuangolds. His park at Surrenden, in Kent, is carefully and intelligently tended. By a judicious introduction of wapiti blood (either Canadian or Asiatic, or both) he has produced a type of red deer, heavy, and possessing a splendid head of the red-deer type with many points. It may be objected by some persons that such a cross is not "a red deer," and that such heads should be judged by different standards. Mr. Winans distinguishes ten very distinct varieties of fallow deer, and urges that park herds should be bred for purity like prize dogs. Most owners of deer parks take so little interest in their deer that the herds have degenerated into stunted mongrels. There are short chapters on roe, sika, and chital; and information that will be useful on fencing, feeding, catching, transporting, and breeding deer. In the last chapter, on "Deer for Hunting," our author defends the chase of the carted deer from the charge of cruelty. That the hunted " tame " deer is occasion- ally and unintentionally injured Mr. Winans does not deny. But the ignorance of those who attack field sports and hunting generally makes it easy to refute the charges they spas- modically bring. All hunting is, of course, "cruel" in a sense. But of all kinds there can surely be little doubt that hunting tame deer is the least cruel.
A. book about dogs stands next on the list. Dog-lovers will he delighted with it. The worst of dog-lovers is that they so often praise dogs for qualities which they conspicuously lack. Thus on opening this book we find Oujda saying that what- ever faults a dog may have he is never "a snob." Dogs and their Masters, by Miss Marion Chappell, it is hardly necessary to say, is a book for dog-lovers. Poets and prose writers of all times and various countries are made to contribute to the canine anthology, and there is no lack of material. There are many classic passages about dogs, and a few which seem scarcely worth reprinting. But Miss Chappell has culled freely. Some living dog-lovers bare contributed sentiments or anecdotes, and the volume is prettily illustrated. Some of us are dog-lovers, and some people do not like dogs. There is, of course, no obligation to be a dog-lover, nor does any moral quality necessarily accompany a love of dogs, though dog-lovers always think so. Many historic dog-lovers have been persons of weak intellect or mean character. But the nobility and fidelity of the dog's character has been such a fertile theme that the wonder is there are not more canine anthologies. Miss Chappell's labours will be welcomed by all who, like George Eliot, think "Dogs are the best friends." The objectionable qualities of dogs are quite properly passed over in this volume. We find Talleyrand quoted with a (F) for the classic phrase which he certainly never uttered.
We come next to a book about the wild life cf Australia, written in a somewhat flowery style and illustrated with numerous photographs, of which some are good and others inferior in quality. Creature-Life in. Australian Wilds is by Mr. Cyril Grant Lane, who describes himself on the title-page as "Lecturer to Geographical, Art, Literary, Zoological, and other Societies." He has had long experience of the Australian bush, has observed the habits of the native mammals and birds, and has worked assiduously with his camera. Kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, opossums, native bears, dingoes, and phalangers he has had opportunities of watching at close quarters. He followed at one time the business of trapper and fur-trader. Birds be loves. He has a chapter on "Venomous Snakes as Bushmen see Them." A rather egoistic note of personal adventure runs through the book, and even in the photographs the author's figure is often conspicuous in the foreground, "emerging from a wombat's burrow" or sitting by a lagoon "where the author studied the habits of beaver-rats." The assistance of a zoologist in revising the list of Latin names would have avoided some ludicrous errors. We pass to a new work on ornithology of first-rate quality Major Boyd Horshrugh's Game-Birds and Water-Fowl g South Africa is a handsome and somewhat costly volume which will be of the greatest possible value to sportsmen in identi- fying the birds they have bagged. The author is thoroughly well equipped for the task be has undertaken. "South Africa" means, roughly, everything south of a line drawn east and west through the mouth of the Zambesi river. Some sixty-five species are figured and described. " Game-birds " are interpreted somewhat widely to include bustards (ten species), stone-curlews, snipe, francolius (fifteen species), quails, guinea-fowls, sand-grouse, and three pigeons. There are eighteen species of duck and goose, of which only the European shoveller is a British bird. But the Egyptian goose, now familiar in every public park in this country, is common over most of South Africa, though a poor bird on the table when it has been shot. At the end Major Horsbrugh includes, with an apology, the Hadada ibis, on the ground that being excellent eating it is wel- come in the game bag. The text includes a synonymy, local names, a short description, and a paragraph on distribu- tion. One or two, or more, pages are then devoted to the habits and food of the species. This brings us to the full-page coloured plates, which have been provided by Sergeant C. G. Davies, of the Cape Mounted Riflemen, and most successfully reproduced by the publishers. There is a plate of each of the sixty-five birds, and occasionally male and female, where the sexes differ much, are both depicted. Sergeant Davies's drawings have all the minute and micro- scopic accuracy -which ornithologists appreciate and which artists who are not naturalists depreciate. Every small detail of colour, every feather, every particular of bill and feet is reproduced with perfect fidelity, and yet the general effect of the picture is seldom stiff. The plates are of exceptional merit., and they naturally form an attractive feature in a book which exactly meets the wants of the ordinary sportsman. According to Major Horsbrugh, what ruins all shooting in South Africa is the fact that game birds are allowed to be sold for the market. South African birds are not preserved in any way. Immense quantities of feathered game find their way into the markets, and the constant drain is fast tending to exterminate many species. If this is the fact, the South African Government will surely be wise enough to establish close times.
We pass next to a translation from the classic works of the great French entomologist. Those who can should read Henri Fabre's Souvenirs Entomologigues in French. Failing ability to do so they may turn to a selection of his observations on spiders published in English under the title of The Life of a Spider. Mr. Alexander Teixeira de Mattes must have had a bard task in producing a readable translation. The great French observer of insect life has recorded all that he saw and much that he thought in a fashion which cannot easily be reproduced. But Henri Fabre is a great man in his way. His writings are voluminous and several translators have already quarried in them. But of these chapters on spiders one only has previously appeared in English, namely, in the English Review. The bulk of the book is devoted to the great black-bellied tarantula, which Fabre declares to have a bite fatal to sparrows and moles. M. Maurice Maeterlinck contributes a somewhat lengthy preface to this volume. Speaking of Fabre's works, he declares that evolution "emerges from these volumes in a somewhat sorry plight, after being sharply confronted with incontestable facts." We rub our eyes. What does M. Maeterlinck think that zoologists mean by " evolution " P The next book is for butterfly or moth collectors and breeders. The Entomologist's Log-Book is a dictionary of the British Macro-Lepidoptera and their food plants, with entries alphabetically arranged in English and Latin. Synonyms, both generic and specific, arc given. Mr. Alfred George Scorer, who has undertaken this laborious task, has supplied his fellow-entomologists with a mass of detailed information which hitherto has not been so conveniently available. Under each moth are the food-plants of the larvae ; under each plant are the larvae which will be found on it. There are also short notes on life-history which make a volume of some four hundred pages of text, interleaved, for private notes, with blank pages. Lastly comes an animal book for children. The Zoo Con-
rersation Book, by Mr. Edmund Mous, is never dull, and the dialogue between Hughie and the animals in the Gardens will keep boys and girls amused, and perhaps even enthralled. Mr. Selous is a vivacious author, and the conversations—as the saying goes—impart sound information on natural history. This is " Hughie's second visit" and a companion volume to his first, which appeared not long before. It is written in a style that will not fail to be popular with children and without any too extravagant attempts at fun.
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