82 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Feb., '14 



exaggerations and legends which have collected about my person, and 

 thus to set all things in their true light." 



A common fault in biographies is that they are generally too lauda- 

 tory, and in this book the author has not neglected his opportunities in 

 this respect. However, if it be a fault, it is one that can be readily for- 

 given. The most interesting part of the book is the account of the life 

 of a very modest man, who never took advantage of any untoward 

 means of personal advancement, an enemy to all advertisement, depend- 

 ing solely on honesty of purpose and an effort to investigate the won- 

 ders of nature for the joy of the work and with the hope that mankind 

 would benefit from his endeavors. The pleasure was in the work and 

 the hope of material reward unseen and unlocked for. 



The title of the work illustrates another feature in such books. Au- 

 thors are prone to look so far into the poetic and aesthetic side that 

 they develop a pronounced myopia in relation to the necessary technical 

 and scientific part of all natural history investigation. On the other 

 hand the true scientist and systematist sees the poetic and aesthetic as- 

 pect but also recognizes the absolute necessity of a scientific terminology. 

 In fact, it is the aesthetic that starts him on the road. Our author 

 makes Fabre appear restless as a user of the technical names of insects ; 

 yet use them he must. He also places him as an opponent of evolution, 

 at least in part. 



The lay reader of the book would suppose that all things related in 

 the Work were the discoveries of the "Poet of Science," yet all careful 

 students of science know that most of the important facts and discov- 

 eries in nature and science have been cumulative and built up like con- 

 cretions, or like the rolled snowball, that has had a push from many 

 hands, before it reaches its final resting place. The book, however, is a 

 most interesting one and was constructed by loving hands, in honor of a 

 modest man who has done a noble work as a naturalist, entomologist 

 and as a literary chronicler of our minute, but none the less mighty, lit- 

 tle friends and enemies. HENRY SKINNER. (Advertisement.) 



Two BOOKS ON ANIMAL ECOLOGY. 



ANIMAL COMMUNITIES IN TEMPERATE AMERICA, AS ILLUSTRATED IN 

 THE CHICAGO REGION. A Study in Animal Ecology, by VICTOR E. SHEL- 

 FORD, PH.D., of the Department of Zoology, Th University of Chicago. 

 Published for ihe Geographic Society of Chicago by the University of 

 Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, October, 1913, 8vo., pp. xiii, 362. 

 More than 300 figures, maps and diagrams. Price $3.00 net, postpaid 

 $3-22. 



GUIDE TO THE STUDY OE ANIMAL ECOLOGY, by CHAKI.KS C. ADAMS, 

 PH.D., Associate in Animal Ecology, Department of Zoology, Univer- 

 sity of Illinois, New York, The Macmillan Co., 1913, 12 mo., pp. xii. 

 183. 7 figures. Price $1.25. 



