1, ANIMAL Lire im Fist & GaxDEx, by Jean Henri Fabre: translated, Florence 'C. Bickwell and. Kate Murray: Thornton. Butterworth, Ltd. 6/- net, 2, Manveis oP Rerviur Lirs, by W. 8.
Berridge, F28qThomnion Butierworth, Lid 6/-"net, Few people can resist the charms of Nature. It is said that all the world loves an artist; but the man {or woman) who has a good story to tell about the wild life of wood-Jand, meadow, or even the back garden,' can always be sure of anal tentive and appreciative audianee, There are those who take advantage! of this fact, but, deeming Nature! too prosaic, decorate the stories they have to tell with all kinds of embellishments, which they consi der more marvellous than the truth.
Hence the fabulous stories that! have been handed down to us, and! which, if we but tum up the natural history books of yesterday, we will find set out in cold print as facts. It matters not where we go oF in what Jand we prosecute our inquiry ies; the country folk are always readg to beguile us with recounts of the local animals and birds, and the more incredible or miraculous the stories they tell, the more insistant they are that we believe them, Modern research, however, is] changing all this, The close observation of animal life out of doors, of which Gilbert While, whose letters ave collected in that delight volume "The History of Selborne was probably the first great exponent, albeit he never succeeded in satisfying himself that swallows do not hiberante, has resulted in substituting for the myths that our fathers believed a host of facts that for sheer wonder put old fictions in the trade, In other words, hums invention in its endeavour to rouse interest by the imaginative creation of the marvellous pales into insignia ficance when compared with what Dame Nature produces in actual fact, It is to the gradual discovery and appreciation of this that we owe, an ever increasing flood of litera-with Nature in her lant moods, instance the writers of there bock* have culled their information from the publications of scientific. re-! ceareh workers; playing the role, it were, of the interpreters of the -acientist to the man in the street.
Thousands of Admirers Others there are, and these we deem the greater, who get their facts at first hand, and so are the interpreters direct' of nature, And there none has achieved a greater place in our affections than Jean Henri Fabre. Taking up his abode in the country itself, and surround ing himself with glass cases, boxes and cages, as well as his writing materials, this grand old naturalist carried out a programme of intensive study of the lives and activities of the denizens of his garden and the neighbouring fiekis, streams and woods; and what he discovered he committed to paper in his own inimitable way and presented to the His books were written in French, but, praises be, they have found translators who have rendered them into the English language, and today his works are enjoyed by! theusandg of English and Americans, to whom he ig the pro-thet' of his cult. And _very rightly too, for his work bears the stamp of authority, and, usually, when he makes a statement about the life or habits of one of the lowly creatures he loves, we know that he has verified it himself, If we have a quarrel with Fabre it is not with his statement -of facts—but sometimes with his interpretation of them. Years ago we read his Wonders of Instinct," and at the times were surprised at his deductions, namely, that every act of an insect's life was governed by insttinet, and that never did originality account for a course of action, Apart from the facts that the very eases he gave to prove his contention proved the reverse to us, and that our own experiences with the Jower forms of animate nature com-el us to endow them with consider. ble (considering the size, relative! ind actual, of their brains) reason-_ ing power and capacity to Investig fate new avenues of experience and benefit by their discoveries—apart from these facts it must be admitted that at some time in the history of! each race of living thi
instinct appears govern life activities and functions, experiments must been tried and discoveries made, Rats and Mice and Such Small Deer But let that pass: we are dealing with the facts of the lives of the animals more or less well known to us as set out in this latest translated work of Fabre. This is a delight-unal Life is Field and Garden." lustrated by a series of 16 engravings by Fitch Daglish, that in themselves fare charming to a degree. Bats, hedgehogs, moles, rats and mice form the subjects of the first few chapters, followed by several chapters on birds, and ending up with' some on reptiles, amphibians and finally insects. In reading through the chapters we have noted one or two statements that surprise us, and in regard to which we would like proof. In regard to the brown, or Norway rat, for instance, it stated that this animal was or ally introduced from Indis Wel have ways understood that Mu: norvegions was indigenous in Northern Asia, closely related forms! occurring throughout Siberia as far] as the Amur asd North China Again, the black rat (Mus rattus) is said by Fabre to have been brought to Western Europe by the Crusaders, This statement is based on the fact that the form was not
the time of the Crusaders. It Known in these parts, previous to supposed to be descended from a wi form, Mus frugivorous, that habits Sicily, Italy, Spain and the Mediteranean region generally. Once more, in describing the viper's method of swallowing its prey, our naturalist says that, "The animal attacked by the reptile is first bitten with the venomous fangs, where-is immediately overcome with 'As soon as the prey is dead, the viper twines its folds about the' lifeless body, squeezes it tightly, and] subjects it to a kind of kneading] process in order to make it smaller, for the victim must be gulfed down in one mouthful even if it exceeds the serpent itself in. size."
Here we have a statement, namely that) the viper constricts its dead prey to reduce its size before swallowing that is open to considerable doubt, and if Fabre actually observed fuch a process, he should have said so. We wonder, in this case, whether he was not foing on hearsay. That small snakes like the viper constrict their prey is a popular belief amongst country folk in England but the belief amongst zoologists is that this habit is restricted to the larger species of serpents such as the boa, and the python.
Among the Snakes pents and their Ea bits brings us to the second book under review, namely, that by W.S. Berridge entitled "Marvels of Rep-he Life." Here the author brings before the public various phases of reptilian life that he feels should appeal to the sense of the wonderful. OF course reptilian life, as well as all life, is marvellous. "It has only to be studied to show this. The trouble is most people will not take the trouble to investigate deeply' enough to discover what a wonderful thing life its unending rami fons and innumerable manifest tations. Our thanks are alw: due to people like Mr. Berridge, who will do the investigating, and then set the facts out in simple language to read at our ease. But how much more do we gain if we] will but do the investigation ourselves? The author of this inter esting book, while lacking the pea of Fabre, nevertheless presents rep-_ and amphibian life to us in tractive enough way. He tackles and disposes of many of the popular myths we have already complained] of, and in so doing renders a service to' the public interested in natural history. He is evidently a great frequenter of the reptile house at the Zoological Gardens at Regent's Park, and we suspect that most of his Knowledge is gained from this source. For which reason there little original in the book, But perhaps we are asking too much, since reptiles ard amphibians are very well known, and, short of making investigations, after the manner of Fabre, of the creatures in their na tural haunts in all parte of the it would be difficult to con jure up anything that haz net already been written about them.
Snakes form the chief topic of! Aiseussion in this book, occupying a8 they do fully half its pages. Am-Phibians are given bot eve chapters
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.