NATURAL HISTORY BOOKS.*
MR. CARL HAGENBECR'S Beasts and Men has been extremely well translated into English by Mr. Hugh Elliot and Mr. A. G. Thacker. The great firm whose business in animals is known all over the world began in 1848 with six seals. Now Hagenbeck's animal-park at Stellingen is a sight which no visitor to Hamburg should miss. At first the firm chiefly catered for circus proprietors and trainers of wild beasts; now there is hardly a zoological garden or private menagerie that has not been supplied with animals. An interesting chapter describes how wild animals are caught and trans- ported. The difficulties that were met with on the famous expedition to Mongolia in search of Prjevalsky's wild horses are described in some detail. We should have been glad to hear more of another party that was despatched to the swamps of Barotseland to look for a gigantic dinosaur. The expedition failed, but the evidence for believing that some reptile akin to the plesiosaurus may have survived in Africa is fairly strong. Mr. Hagenbeck has been the pioneer of two important matters. First he claims to have established a humane and rational school of training performing carnivora. Gentleness replaces barbarity; and it is a cardinal principle to expel from the troupe any animals that do not show sufficient intelligence to become successful performers. The same principle may possibly some day be applied with success by other theatrical managers. Out of twenty lions or tigers, only four may show real theatrical aptitude and intelligence : in the average musical comedy company we imagine the proportion would be even smaller. Mr. Hagenbeck's other reform is the fresh-air treatment for wild animals. Even tropical monkeys and carnivora which used to be confined in overheated and airless dens are found to thrive in fresh air, and to enjoy rain and snow. This theory marks an era in the art of managing wild animals, • (1) Beasts and Men. By Carl Hagenbeck. An Abridged Translation by Hugh S. R. Elliot and A. G. Thacker. With an Introduction by P. Chalmers Mitchell. With Photogravure Portrait of the Author and 91 other Illustra- tions. London: Longman and Co. [12s. 6d. net.]—(2) Wild Life on the Bookies. By Enos A. Mills. With Illustrations from Photographs. London : A. Constable and Co. [6s. net.]—(3) A History of the Birds of Sent. By Norman F. Ticehuret. With 24 Plates and a Map. London : Witherby and Co. [21s. net.]—(4) Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. Vol. XXIV. Edited by W. B. Ogilvie-Grant. Same publishers. [68.]--(5) Nature through the Microscope. By William Spiers. With 10 Coloured Plates and 300 Drawings and Hicro.Photographs. London: Robert Gulley. [7s. .6d. set.]—(6) A First Book of Wild Rowers. By Margaret M. Rankin. With 109 Illustrations in Colour by Nora Hedley. London : Andrew Melrose. .[6s. net.]—(7) .Fungi, and How to Know Them. By E. W. Swanton. With .xnunerous Coloured and Uncoloured Illustrations. London : Methuen and Co. [6e. net.] and its outcome has been the establishment of an ostrich farm on commercial lines at Stellingen. This experiment was only begun in the early part of 1909, but the trade in plumes promises a profit. The anthropoid apes have always been favourites of Mr. Hagenbeck, who believes that if they are treated as members of the family the intelligence of our simian relatives is almost human. Orangs and chimpanzees. do well, whilst gorillas always suffer from mental depression in confinement. He describes a comical meeting between a young gorilla fresh from the Cameroon and three other acclima- tised anthropoids in the menagerie. The gorilla took very little notice of the others, who yelled with delight, and at first welcomed their new cousin, but, becoming indignant at his coldness, pelted him with stones. " Rosa's excitement brought on a fit of vomiting, so that the whole scene was indescribably droll" There are a number of interesting personal records and anecdotes in this unique book for which one must be grateful to Mr. Hagenbeck. No one has had the experience which he has enjoyed, and he covers ground which no writer on animals has so far touched.
Our next work is a book of adventure, which incidentally treats of wild animals. Wild Life on the _Rockies, by M. Enos A. Mills, contains the record of journeys along the Colorado continental divide. Many expeditions were made on snowshoes, and nearly all in solitude and without firearms. In saying that some adventures are startling it must not be thought that we suspect the writer of exaggeration. Holding the post of " State Snow Observer," he has traversed the moun- tains and the pine-forests when all was enveloped in blizzards and drifts. Bedding he left behind, and trusted to raisins for food, often eating only once a day, and occasionally going two or three days without food. Meteorological instruments, a notebook, a camera, and an axe were all that Mr. Mills carried ; and his last words are that a camp fire in the forest is the most enchanting place on life's highway. He writes of trees, birds, beavers, an adventure with wolves, and records a splendid story told by two prospectors in a log but who were besieged by bears. There is good reading in the book even for those who do not think with the author that "out in the wilds with Nature is one of the safest and most sanitary of places."
Ornithologists who were aware that Mr. Norman Ticehurst was at work on A History of the Birds of Kent have looked forward to the appearance of his book. The labours of sixteen years are now completed, and the result will not disappoint the most sanguine expectations. The work is in all respects the model of what a county history of birds should be, and a most interesting and valuable contribution to the knowledge of ornithology. It is a great pleasure to select from among the rubbish that is published about birds a book of solid merit. Kent is of peculiar importanoe from an ornithologist's point of view. Its physical features offer haunts suitable to every family, and a number of routes used by migrating birds converge upon its coasts. Our knowledge of migration is still in its infancy. A few pages are devoted in Mr. Ticehurst's introduction to a summary of the movements that have been observed to take place with regularity. They are extremely complex. We are glad to notice that the old-fashioned division into " residents" and " migrants " is discarded. The more we know, the more probable it seems that almost all birds move with the seasons, and that those which breed in Kent, though of the same species, are not the same individuals as those which wintered there. Nearness to the Continent accounts for occasional visits of birds common across the Channel, such as the great reed warbler, icterine warbler, and crested lark. The list of rare stragglers and irregular visitors is a remarkable one. Some old-fashioned students may be unreasonably upset it finding that trinomials are used. These have been intro- duced in cases where two or more geographical races of a single species have occurred in the county, and where the British form of a species has been separated as a distinct geographical race from its Continental allies. Holding, as Mr. Ticehurst does, the firm opinion that due appreciation of well-marked geographical races will go far towards the elucidation of many problems of migration and of the origin of our fauna, he contends that no apology is necessary for altering Mr. Howard Saundeis's nomenclature. The book contains a map, a bibliography, and some notes on collections of Kent birds.
Whilst we are dealing with bird-migration it may be well
to mention that the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club (Vol. XXIV.) has appeared. It is edited as before by Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, and deals with migration in the autumn of 1907 and spring of 1908. The facts collected are of absorb- ing interest to every field-naturalist wbo takes any serious interest in migration. The material is admirably edited, and it is a pity that a far larger number of observers all over England do not trouble to advance our knowledge by filling up schedules for a few weeks in the spring.
There are already many popular books on microscopic work, but Mr. William Spiers's Nature through the Microscope may be recommended for several reasons. He covers an immense amount of ground, and the chapters are orderly, so that the reader advances step by step from the bottom to the top of the biological ladder. We begin with desmids, diatoms, volvox, and fungi, and proceed so to the higher plants. Then descending to pass the undefined boundary, we study the amoeba in the drop of rain-water, sponges, hydras, rotifers, worms, ascending to the human tissues. There is a chapter on bacteriology, and another, too short to be more than moderately useful, on the choice and use of the mioroscope. Of course, a book which covers so much cannot go deeply into any problems, bat Mr. Spiers manages to indicate all that the amateur can expect to see and study. His attitude is that of a devout believer in Christianity who sees everywhere signs of a benevolent and intelligent Creator. The profusion of illustrations will be interesting and instructive.
The best feature in A First Book of Wild Flowers is the hundred and nine coloured plates by Miss Nora Hedley, which are most cleverly drawn, and as well reproduced as can be expected in a moderate-priced book. Coloured plates are essential in a child's botany-book, but the text with which Miss Rankin accompanies them is very slender even for young children. There is little or no attempt to explain the structures of flowers, and the space given to the uses which herbalists formerly made of the plants might have been devoted to this. Slight and occasionally inaccurate as the text is from a botanical standpoint, it will serve to teach children, with the help of the plates, the names of a well- chosen selection of common plants. Latin names are also given; but it is a pity that assistance from a competent botanist was not obtained to correct many errors and misprints in these. In a book which follows no systematic order an index is badly wanted, and this, unfortunately, is lacking.
A good popular introduction to the study of fungi is much needed, and Mr. E. W. Swanton, the well-known Curator of Haslemere Museum, has done his best to supply the want. Fungi, and How to Know Them is described as an introduction to field mycology. The difficulties of writing such a book are exceedingly great, but Mr. Swanton by confining himself to species that can be identified without a microscope has acted wisely. We cannot agree with him that it is " no more difficult to identify a fungus than it is to diagnose a flower." The amateur mycologist 'who will carefully collect and study fungi with the aid of this handbook will learn much about structure and classification, and lay a safe foundation for future work. The genera of the great order Basidiomycetes are treated in detail. In the order Ascomycetes the minute species are omitted, and only a few of the larger and more easily identified are included. The scope of the book does not go beyond these two orders ; but the intelligent student with care will be able to determine with tolerable certainty the common larger fungi. Mr. Swanton has used a great many technical terms, but has given an excellent glossary. The coloured plates by Miss M. K. Spittal deserve the highest praise, and the numerous uncoloured drawings and photo- graphs are also good; but it is a pity that the inconvenient plan of printing the key and description at the back of the plate has been followed. Mr. Swanton does not recommend experiments in testing the esculent qualities of fungi. As far as nourishment goes, a fungus contains about as much nutritive material as a turnip, and is much more indi- gestible. In these days when the study of natural history is so widely spread in England, a trustworthy and elementary hook on fungi is sure to find a ready sale. But in calling Mr. Swanton's book " elementary," it must not be supposed that it will enable knowledge to be acquired without taking some pains and learning a good many new terms. -
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