SCRATCH many a naturalist and you will find a poet.
There was a poet in Jefferies and one in Hudson ; and there is one in Mr.
Grant Watson. An ardent inquirer, a reporter of the curious in
nature, and a collector of significant facts—he is all of these ; bus that is by no means all. He looks at the stars ; but it is not their numbers, as the scientists reckon, that finally interests him ; rather having noted these things, he passes on to the " correspondiul gossamer" which they inevitably weave into our thoughts. What- ever natural fact he is observing will always be illuminated by gleam of fantasy. He possesses, too, the poet's access to the evocative parallel : he has a command of language rare even amonl poet-naturalists. For all these reasons, it is the cameo, the vignette, that is best suited to Mr. Watson's matter; Walking with Fancy is an album of such pictures, provocative, exquisite. The" range as far as from snakes to fleas, and from the sight of a " covey " of wrens fluttering into wall-holes out of the cold to 3 nocturnal mating of slugs. Every picture, so economically sketched, is accompanied by a scraper-board illustration by Mr- Tunnicliffe. who has most admirably caught the spirit of the text
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