SOME BOOKS ABOUT ANIMA VS"
THE ten books which we have selected for notice in this review have little in common except that they have to do with animals. We will begin with the animal stories, of which readers are in some danger of having a surfeit. A dog as a hero is certain to be popular, and Mr. James Oliver Cur wood's book is long, but never dull. Among recent animal biographies, we have no hesitation in placing first Kazan the Wolf-Dog.' It is a masterpiece, a perfect novel, in which the hero is a
• (1) Hosea the Wolf-Dog. By James Oliver Garwood. With 6 illustrations. London: Cassell and Co. [68.]—(2) Feuds of the Furtive Folk. By F. St. Ham With 5 illuetrationu in colour by Walter Harmer. London: Heath, Cranton, and. Ooseley. 15s. net.]-13) In Beaver World, By Enos A. Mills. With illustration. from photographs by the author. London: Constable and Co. [6a. net.] —(4) Wild Animals at Home. By Ernest Thompson Beton. With 150 sketches and photographs by the author. London Hodder and Stoughton. Dis. net.1.--(5) The Trait of the Sandhill Stag. By Eroest Thompson Beton. With GO drawings Same publishers. [3s. gel. SS) Die Romance of the Neves undlaad Carito. By A. A. Badelyffe Dunmore,
F.R.P.S. Illustrated with paintings, drawings, and photographs from life by the author. London: William Heinemann. 115s. net.3—(7) A History of Land Mammals at the Watern Hemisphere. Bj William B. Scott, Ph.D., Hon. D.Sc., LLD., An Illustrated with 92 plates and more than 100 drawings by Brace Horefall. London Macmillan and Co. [21.. set,]— B) Controlled Natured Selection aud Value Harking. By J. C. Nottram. M.B. Load. London Losgesass and Co. [3e. 6d. net.1 —(9) Th. Snakes of Europe. Bye. A. Boulenger, D., D.Sc., Ph.D., F.E.S., 1T.Z.5. With 14 plates and 42 figures in the text. London Methuen and Co. [6..]—(10) The Life of IS. IfolLusca. By B. 13, Woodward, F.L.S., As. With =plates and, a amp. Samesubliaherss laaj
sledge-dog one part wolf and three parts husky. The Hudson Bay Company's territory, with trappers, far traders, and gold prospectors, forms a background against which the canine drama moves smoothly enough, with events told in forcible and tunable English. The story of Kazan, the half- wild dog, ferocious to those who ill-treat him, such as McCready and MoTrigger, tender to Isobel and Joan, who are kind, is admirably told. The beast keeps all through the mind of a beast. The hero of the story is always an animal alternating between his love of man and woman, and the call of the wild and the fellowship of the she-wolf with whom be becomes mated. But the interest is balanced by sufficient human incident. Loti, the trapper, and Professor McGill, of the Smithsonian Institution, play the parts required of them. The fight with the lynx, the combat of the two bull moose, the great dog-fight in the saloon, which ends unexpectedly, Kazan's returns to the haunts of man and disappearances into the forest, are well told. The reader sees the world as the dog sees it, or, at any rate, believes that he is doing so.
The next book is a collection of short tales. Mr. P. St. Mars in his Feuds of the Furtive Polk 2 gives us nine new animal stories. It is perhaps a matter of taste, but to our thinking these tales are the best which that capable and vigorous author has produced. In the first place, his beasts remain always beasts, and do not talk or argue. Secondly, he writes in a smoother and more restrained style, with less concentrated violence and intent to shock and terrify us. His animals are varied : otters, rats, bats, stoats, ravens, merlins, owls, and pewits. Even the adventures of the whelk carry the reader along. Besides the animal heroes of the tales, there are always careful descriptions of other beasts, and many prettily described pictures of the wild, to form a background. The foreign carnivorous beast let loose to do havoc on the English countryside is a stock theme of more than one writer. Here we have a pair of Australian dingoes loosed by a railway accident among our sheepfolds.
There is ample material for a monograph on heavers. Mr. Enos A. Mills is an American writer, not a trained zoologist, who has a great deal to say about beavers, and who says it very well. Its Beaver Land, contains the record of much personal observation. The author's studies cover twenty- seven years. He has travelled through every State in the Union as well as Canada, Alaska, and Mexico. Near his cabin in Colorado be bad colonies close at hand. Once he had fourteen under almost daily observation. He has watched them building dams, cutting canals, felling trees, and storing aspen logs for winter food. To work like a beaver has become proverbial, and, so far as we know, a better account of the intelligence of these rodents has never been written. But Mr. Mills is mistaken in saying that the European beaver is probably extinct. There are quite recent records. With all his watching, Mr. Mills never discovered how joint opera.- tions were directed, nor did he ever see a beaver use its tail as a trowel, as some vulgarly believe it does. Many beaver. works are years, possibly centuries, old. The European beaver never developed the advanced dam-building habits of its American relative. The longest dam Mr. Mills ever measured was 2,140 feet. This was in Montana. But the canals, dug for floating logs from the adjacent forests, are even more wonderful than the dams. There are a number of good photographs of the beasts and their works in this very readable book.
Two books from the charming pen of Mr. Ernest Thompson Beton need hardly be recommended to our readers. With all the knowledge that he has of the wild fauna of North America, he tells us that he has found no place more rewarding than the Yellowstone Park, "the great mountain haven of wild life." Wild Animals at Home,4 illustrated with many photographs and hundreds of characteristic little marginal sketches, gives a wonderful account of this paradise of the naturalist and camera bunter. It is an account, sometimes a little disjointed by journalistic cross-headings, into which some anecdotes of other pluses are introduced. But the great national reserve, which was established in 1872, is Mr. Seton's main theme. Here, as everyone knows, animals have lost their fear of man. Black bears and grizzlies visit the back- yards and garbage-heaps of hotels. Wapiti, mule-deer, and white-tail pose for the photographer. Moose have increased from fifty in 1897 to five hundred and fifty in 1912. Bighorn are now common along the western boundary. The wild
herd of bison numbers about fifty, and there are, besides, about a hundred and fifty more in fenced corrals. The pronghorn is almost the only steadily diminishing species. The interest- ing appendix, with a catalogue of the mammals, which Mr. Beton prints, informs us that the carnivora include about a hundred pumas, which never show themselves, besides lynxes, bobcats, foxes, otters, mink, wolverine, and badgers. The timber wolf is very rare, but coyotes are abundant. With such abundant material at his disposal, Mr. Seton makes a pleasant series of chapters. None is more entertaining than that on the skunk, an animal which, for reasons that do not commend themselves to all Americans, he maintains should be the proper national emblem of America instead of the eagle.
The second volume from the pen of this fertile writer is The Trail of the Sandhill Stag,' "dedicated to the old-timers of the Big Plain of Manitoba." It is a slender tale, with many pretty illustrations, of a lad who has the hunting fever strong on him, but cannot bring himself to pull the trigger when he has at last made a successful stalk. An atmosphere of snow, lakes, pines, wolves, and Indians surrounds the subject. There is nothing on the title-page to inform the guileless English reader that this is not a new book ; but the story was copyrighted in the United States as long ago as 1899.
We pass easily from Canada across the strait of Belle Isle. Having spent nine seasons in Newfoundland watching, stalking, and photographing caribou, Mr. A. A. Radclyffe Dugmore has produced a well-written and interesting volume. The Romance of the Neufoundland Caribou' contains an intimate account of the animal's habits, written by a true naturalist who carried no firearms and for the most part camped and worked alone. The book is admirably illustrated with maps, drawings of antlers, and photographs. These last form a unique collection of large, clear plates which are as near perfection as any photographer has got. That of the stag taken at a distance of nine yards is indeed perfect, and all are good. The Newfoundland caribou form a distinct race, and Mr. Dugmore, who classes himself with the "Iumpers" against the " splitters," seems to misapprehend the problem which engages systematic zoologists. For if the existence of geographical races be admitted, it must surely be the business of men of science to describe and name them. His chapter on "The Newfoundland Caribou as a Species" does not much advance our knowledge, but as an observer and recorder of facts, and facts only, be is excellent. There are probably between one hundred thousand and two hundred thousand caribou on the island. A good male head may have forty points, very seldom over fifty. About one doe in ten is horn- less. On the strange half-yearly migrations of the deer he has a chapter, and another on the habits in the rutting season, when he had the good fortune to watch some fighting. One of the problems which Mr. Dugmore has failed to solve is how exactly the clicking of the hoofs, which is characteristic of all reindeer, is produced. He disposes of the belief that it is caused by the split hoofs striking together or striking the ground. It is more likely caused by the internal mechanism of the foot. The deer are well protected now, and he pro- nounces the game laws as nearly perfect as any in existence. A small reserve has been established with good effect. For those who want to shoot or travel in Newfoundland there is information at the end of the book on guides, camping, outfit, and game laws.
The next book on our list is of a more scientific and serious nature. A History of Land Mammals in the Western Hemi- sphere' is a massive work by a highly competent American writer. Mr. William B. Scott is Blair Professor of Geology and Paleontology in Princeton University, New York. He tells us that he writes, in the first place, for the layman; but we should like to add that the intelligent layman must not be afraid of many ferocious-looking Latin names (no others exist); and, if be be not too lazy, he may use an excellent glossary. The volume, moreover, is lavishly illustrated with admirable drawings and photographs. We know nothing better of the kind. Professor Scott is not one of those who claim to be able to restore a fossil animal from a single bone. Re points out that many conclusions are merely tentative. He inclines to evolution per salt tern, and dwells on the gaps in our knowledge. The great series of drawings of restored mammals, as they may or must have appeared in life, is iely good and an interesting feature of the book. The skeleton gives the outline. External characters must be supplied mostly by guesswork. What real authority can Mr. Bruce Horsfall (a very skilful artist who has supplied this vast number of plates and drawings) have for depicting the early horse (Eohippue) with longitudinal stripes ? Re- membering that he is writing for the intelligent layman, Professor Scott opens with two elementary chapters on the methods of geology and paleontology. These are followed by an outline of mammalian classification according to the most recent views and a sketch of geographical distribution. Next follows a fairly full description of the skeletons and teeth of mammals. These early chapters are illustrated with numerous photographs of living animals. This brings the layman to the brink ; and what follows will be found sufficiently detailed and learned to satisfy the trained zoologist. The Western States of North America and the pampas of Argentina have supplied a mass of fossil mam- malian material for study such as occurs nowhere else in the known world. Some types are indigenous, others immigrants. Professor Scott reviews first the succeeding faunas of pleistocene, pliocene, miocene, oligocene, eocene, and paleo- cene periods. Then, approaching the same subject from another aspect, be devotes a chapter to each great order of mammals. He does not conceal the fact that evolution is a very complex process. Divergent, parallel, and convergent modes of development go together. Phylogeny would be easy if every resemblance were proof of relationship. On the whole, the study of fossil mammals teaches that the lines, or phyla, draw together as one goes back and display themselves as branches of a single stem.
Before leaving the philosophy of evolution we may notice a small work which is not beyond the comprehension of the layman who takes an intelligent interest in biological problems. Few persons are likely, from the title, to guess the purport of Dlr. J. C. Mottram's book, Controlled Natural Selection and Value Marking." He puts forward in a slender volume a new theory or hypothesis to explain the facts of sexual dimorphism which are so striking in many animals. Darwin's theory of sexual selection has been acknowledged to have many weak- nesses, but it holds the field for want of anything better. One may summarize the new theory in Mr. Mottram's own words : Males are more conspicuous in nature than females. Males are less valuable than females. Males and females are associated during life, and especially during the breeding season. The difference in value is then highest and the difference in colour is greatest. According to the new theory, the bright colour of the male serves to "control natural selection," so that the less valuable male gets killed. The male becomes brightly plumaged in order to save the precious dull-coloured female. So the displays which precede the act of pairing are not to make the female select, but to draw the fire of concealed enemies on to the male. Again, the song of the male bird is not to charm the female, but to attract dangerous enemies from her. Mr. Mottram disarms criticism by saying that he states but does not attempt to prove the new theory. But he produces many examples which seem to accord with it. The reader who is interested in the theory of evolution should read the book, and observe for himself how far it explains the facts. It may be remembered that Stolzmann put forward a theory which somewhat resembles this one. Mr. Mottram contends that his own theory is not open to the objections which were fatal to his predecessor's. His theory explains, among other things, why old and sterile female birds assume the male plumage. There is, on the other hand, much that it does not explain. At the end of the book the theory is applied to the colour of British birds in the breeding season. Mr. Mottram will have to develop his hypothesis before he can hope to make it a convincing one. It is a misfortune that the Latin names of the birds have escaped the attention of the proof-reader. The number of misprints in pp. 116.120 is deplorable.
We will end this lengthy and discursive review with a notice of two new volumes in the excellent series of popular handbooks which Messrs. Methuen are producing, which was opened by Dr. Caiman's Crustaceans. They deal with European snakes and with molluscs respectively. The Snakes of Europe' is a trustworthy handbook by Dr. G. A. Boulenger, who is probably the greatest authority on reptiles in this country. His book has the merit of filling a notorious gap, for there has hitherto been no work in English on European
snakes or reptiles. About half the volume is devoted to a general introduction telling what is known about snakes, with a short bibliography. This part is very readable and interest- ing. A systematic catalogue and account of the various species, twenty-eight in number, follows. The book is excel- lently illustrated. Since the legend is not yet dead, we may quote Dr. Boulenger "Not a single reported case of a female snake swallowing her young for protection rests on satisfactory evidence." Dr. W. L. Sambon contributes a chapter on the. parasites of snakes, which have been so far little studied.
The Life of the Molluscs," by Mr. B. B. Woodward, is an excellent specimen of the semi-popular book of zoology written by a man of science. The author is engaged in the Natural History Museum. We call the work " semi-popular " because a good many technical terms are used and scientific classification and nomenclature are followed. But the un- learned reader who wishes to understand the structure and life-history of a group of invertebrates which includes the snails, slugs, oysters, whelks, and cuttlefish will find the book admirably arranged and up-to-date. There are good chapters on the evolution, geological history, habits, instincts, present history, and distribution of molluscs. Shell-collecting is rather out of fashion, and most shell-collectors in the past have taken little interest in the inhabitant. We are not acquainted with any recent book which gives such a full and complete survey without overloading the subject with details only interesting to the systematist. At the end of the volume is a map (which should have faced p. 66) and a great aeries of plates. These are well chosen and clearly printed. Some are from the late Dr. Woodward's "Manual," others are specially drawn by Miss G. M. Woodward.
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