POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 4
THE present season has not, we must confess, produced much of conspicuous or exceptional merit in the way of popular natural history books. We have selected for mention in one article a variety of books which are attractive in different ways, but which hardly call for a longer and more detailed review. In some cases the photographs, which now adorn all natural history books, are plainly the foundation on which the writing of the book has been based. When the photographs are of real merit and interest, as are those of Mr. Douglas English in A Book of Nimble Beasts, the result is a very pretty volume of stories which will delight children. The photographs of animals, bats, toads, mice, badgers, beetles, foxes, butterflies, and especially of sand-wasps, are excellent. The text too is written in a way to amuse children and secure their attention. They will be well entertained, and will learn a certain amount of natural history.
Passing from animals to trees, we have another work of attractive appearance intended for adult readers. English Woodlands and their Story can best be described as a superior kind of guide-book, which may be read by those who are not visitors to the localities that are dealt with. We suspect that Mr. Houghton Townley's remarkably good nollection of photographs, or " camera pictures " as he is pleased to call them, formed the basis of his work. But whether the text was written for the pictures or the illustra- tions prepared for the book is unimportant. The volume is illustrated with a profusion of plates of woodland scenes and famous old trees. The last chapter contains technical hints on woodland photography, at which the amateur is seldom very successful. The introduction tells us a little about the forest laws, and explains such terms as "vert " and "purlieus" without pretending to be more than a superficial survey of the subject. Burnham Beeches fill nearly the first third of the volume, and suggest anecdotes of the poet Gray and Mrs. Grote. Sherwood Forest naturally recalls Robin Hood, and we cannot think of the New Forest without Rufus. It is the least spoilt of any in the book. The roads inthe New Forest run, unfortunately, with Roman straightness. At Epping, as
• (1) A Book of Nimble Beasts. By Douglas English. With over 200 Illustra- tions from Photographs of Living Animals taken by the Author. London Eveleigh Nash. [Os. net.]—(2) English Woodla nds and their Story. By Houghton Townley. Illustrated by 100 Camera Pictures taken by the Author. London : Methuen and Co. [Ms. net.]—(3) Sketches of Country Life. By Edward Step, F.L.S, With 160 Illustrations from the Author's Photographs. London : Sampson Low, Marston, and Co. [6s. net.]—(4) Fairy Plants : a Fern-Book for Children. By Francis George Heath. With 180 Illustrations on Fern Subjects. London John Ouseley. 6d. net.]—(5) In Nature's Nursery a Children's Nature Story-Book. By Rev. S. N. Sedgwick, M.A. Illustrated with 49 Photographs direct from Nature. London : Charles H. Kelly. [Is. 6d. net.] —(6) The Ronte-Life of the Spoonbill. Photographed and Described. by Bentley Beetham, F.Z.S. With 32 Mounted Plates. London : Witherby and Co. [58. net.]—(7) The Book of the Animal Kingdom (Hammes). By W. Percival Westell, F.L.S. With 14 Coloured and 260 Plain Plates from Photos. London : J. M. Dent and Sous. [lOs. 641. net.]—(8) A Child's Year with Nature. By Margery Raining Briggs. With Numerous Illustrations by the Author.
London : [3s. 6d. net.]—(9) Teachers' Notes on Nature Study: Plants sad Animals. London : Black* and Son. Ds. 6d. net.1
Mr. Townley says, the broken ginger-beer bottle and the torn newspaper struggle bravely with the flowers of the forest. Next, we have the Forest of Dean, with its coal and iron workers ; then Windsor Forest, with recollections of Royalty. The grand avenue at Savernake suggests a disquisition on sacred groves and the origin of Gothic architecture. Ashdown Forest, as the last remaining piece of the great Anderida, Silva, has a history of its own to which few pages are devoted. So Mr. Townley leads his readers on, describing and dis- coursing. Even the most superior sort of guide-book does not aim very high, and Mr. Townley has accomplished what he undertook. His book is easy reading, if not very note- worthy as a history of our forests.
Mr. Edward Step is a popular writer on natural history who is already widely known. His Sketches of Country Life consists of a number of disconnected chapters, or essays, such as must be expected when journalistic work is reprinted. More than half of the twenty-seven pieces have been collected from various periodicals and enlarged. They cover such wide ground that it is hard to describe the book. Most treat of natural history rambles in Surrey,—Boxhill, Leith Hill, and the old Basingstoke Canal are favourite localities. Botany and entomology are Mr. Step's special subjects. The articles on fungi and "Shall We Eat Toadstools P" on wild fruit, moths, morels, and British orchids, all contain enough to open the eyes of those who are unlearned in such matters. There is also a vast profusion of photographs seemed by the author on his rambles. He is best when he is didactic and never aims at fine writing. It is a great thing also that his natural history is sound. "An Ancient Industry" treats of charcoal- burning, which is still carried on in the Surrey hills. Mr. Step writes well, and his book is a pleasant one for readers whose tastes incline them to dabble in natural history. He ranges from the Surrey bills to the seashore, and two or three of his papers are devoted to fish-life.
Fairy Plants is not a happily chosen title, even for a book to teach children something about ferns. Nevertheless, Mr. F. G. Heath, whose popular writings on botanical subjects are already well known to thousands, has produced a satis- factory little book. He is an enthusiastic writer to whom ferns appear especially attractive. But what is more to the point, he has managed to write for the young on the structure and reproduction of ferns in a fashion that will be intelligible to them. Some tolerably good illustrations assist his explana- tions. Though he writes in one place of the prothallus and in another of the prothallium, he explains in elementary language what the " fern-scale " is and what organs it bears. It is a great thing in popular scientific books to have nothing to unlearn if one carries the study further. Mr. Heath does not say much about fairies except in his opening chapter.
Since we are on the subject of fairies, let us see what the Rev. S. N. Sedgwick has to say in "a word to grown-ups" which serves as his preface to In Nature's Nursery, which he describes as " A Children's Nature Story-Book." He also is a well-known popular writer. He declares that fairies are as delightfully real to children as ever they were, and implores his older readers : " For Heaven's sake, in this rationalist age, leave the children their illusions and try to believe them yourselves." Tastes differ, but for our part we think it best to keep zoology and fairies in separate books. Mr. Sedgwick, however, has written about the adventures of Maurice, a little boy who makes himself small enough to go down a mouse. hole. In his expeditions he meets and talks with many animals and plants. In this way amusement is combined with instruction, and the style of the book will appeal to young children, who will not fail to appreciate Mr. Sedgwick's humour.
We come next to a more serious work, which will appeal to all who are interested in birds. Once more the plates are the main feature. The Home-Life of the Spoonbill, by Mr. Bentley Beetham, is a slender but prettily got up volume. It contains some unusually excellent photographs of breeding spoonbills and storks, as well as common and purple herons. The fifty pages of letterpress that accompany the thirty-two plates tell how they were obtained in Holland, and give interesting particulars of the habits of the birds. Mr. Beetham draws attention to the bittern-like habit of the purple heron when it aims at concealment, standing with the bill almost vertically upwards. Both young and old possess a remarkable power of walking over the bush-tops. The usual method of feeding is to disgorge the food into the nest. The spoonbills were distrustful of those who invaded their marshes, which also held colonies of nesting black-terns. It is not without possibility that both these attractive species may with encouragement return to their English nesting-places.
The next book is also zoological, but of quite another kind. We feel, as Mr. W. Percival Westell writes of the jackal, that our "diet is omnivorous." The Book of the Animal Kingdom. deals with mammals, and will be attractive and interesting to the young and unlearned readers for whom it is intended. It is best not to be too critical of Mr. Westell's peculiarities of style. Writing of the wolf, he says " the prey is a differential one"; and again of the elephant :
" Who, excepting those who study animals, would imagine that the well-known tusks—so valuable as articles of commerce— are simply two enormously developed teeth situate in the upper jaw?" We should have thought that almost every one who had ever heard of an elephant knew this. The coloured plates are excellent, and there are besides two hundred and fifty photo- graphs of animals by Mr. Berridge, a clever photographer. The text is compiled from many sources. Although only intended for popular reading, it is not as free from in- accuracies as it might be. It is a misfortune that Mr. Westell did not secure the help of a competent zoologist to read his proofs and correct such obvious errors as are con- tained in the statements, for instance, that "our largest living British mammal is the badger " ; that the brown bear " is no longer to be found in Scotland, although it lived among the mountains there so late as 1707 "; and that walruses are found in the South Polar regions. The text is arranged in nineteen chapters under headings such as "Animals with Armour," "Rats and Mice," "Giants of the Deep," and so forth. The conscientious critic would like to say that this is "a capital book for young naturalists," but is compelled to add that with a little more knowledge and care it might have been much better.
For Sunday-school teachers who take classes in natural history may be recommended A Child's Year with Nature. In fifty-two chapters Miss Briggs suggests subjects, facts, stories, questions, and thoughts for a very elementary Sunday natural history lesson. Willow-catkins, tadpoles, birds' nests, sweet-peas, acorns, cats, robins, and the snow are instances of the subjects chosen for talks. The illustrations are fair, and the text shows how to excite children's interest, and sometimes leads up to a Scripture reading.
Our last book is, curiously enough, much of the same kind, but without the Sunday-school element as a basis. All teachers who give instruction in elementary natural history to youthful classes will find exceedingly useful suggestions in Teachers' Notes on Nature Study. The requirements for a lesson, the points to be noted, the blackboard diagrams, and, above all, the notes for the teacher's own use, should prove of real assistance. The scheme covers animals and plants,—the tadpole, .the spider, the bee, the buttercup, and the dandelion are among the familiar objects on to which a lesson is tacked. The small volume contains a mass of well-arranged matter, and the information is sound and accurate. The notes appeared originally in the "Newton Nature Handbooks," which have been used in many schools. Nothing is forgotten; the chief requirement for the first lesson is a live cat. We are reminded that " the animal should be very tame or it will not submit to the necessary examination and will not feed before a class of children." We may cordially recom- mend this small volume, which is quite Teutonic in its thoroughness. The amount of accurate, detailed, and digested information it contains is remarkable.
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