REVIEWS 493 



usually in a clutch) the parent birds break down the circular mud walls which 

 they built up to block the entrance to the nest, and let the female bird emerge. 

 This the latter does, looking very much the worse for wear. Her long tail has 

 completely gone, and she has very few feathers left to cover her nakedness ! 



What a familiar sight the spider's web is, yet how many of us know the 

 various stages in the weaving of the web of our common garden spider ? This 

 wonderful inherited gift ! We are told that every young spider can weave a 

 web, the very first time, which is true to type in a few hours ! But I must not 

 quote any more from the pages of this delightful book. It should find a place 

 in every house where there are young children. 



After being charmed it is difficult to find fault, but some allusion to the 

 Anopheles mosquito, the vector of malaria, might have been made, while in 

 the drawing of the Culex larva the A nopheles larva might have been drawn 

 alongside, showing the different manner in which it breathes at the surface of 

 the water. 



The drawings on the whole are good, and serve their purpose admirably. 



Ours is a wonderful world, and Nature all the Year Round helps us to 

 reaUse and appreciate it. R. E. Drake-Brockman. 



The Wit o£ the Wild. By Ernest Ingersoll. [Pp. 212, with 16 illustrations.] 

 (London : George Routledge & Sons, Ltd.) Price 6s. net. 



This is a collection of nature studies taken haphazard from Mr. Ingersoll's 

 notebooks. We are suddenly transported from the enigmas of bird -life to 

 the wonders of the ocean, and in each study we are subtly led on and suddenly 

 left thinking. Truth has at times to take a back seat and give way to Mr. 

 Ingersoll's poetic style, particularly on page 79, where he attempts to describe 

 the courtship of lions. The reviewer's experience has been that, among those 

 deer and antelope where polygamy is the rule, the females instinctively and 

 meekly follow the strongest and stoutest of the males. Among the monogamous 

 antelopes the pairs remain not only faithful for a season but until one or the 

 other dies. 



Among the animal partnerships, that between the rhinoceros and a 

 species of starling [Buphaga erythrorhyncha) is one of the most interesting. 

 Wherever one of these stupid pachyderms is found a small flock of the birds 

 may be seen in close attendance, hunting in its ears and on its back and flanks 

 for the blood-distended ticks mth which their host is usually liberally supplied . 

 For this consideration the birds in their turn warn the rhinoceros of approach- 

 ing danger by suddenly leaving him with noisy exclamations which invariably 

 rouse the stupid beast from his lethargy. This same starling is commonly seen 

 in close attendance on buffaloes, domestic cattle, and camels. 



When discussing whether animals commit suicide I find myself in agree- 

 ment with Mr. Ingersoll. Most of us have at one time or another experien ed 

 the almost uncanny instinct and intuition of some wild beasts. Doubtless 

 if we live long enough among certain species one or two individuals will stand 

 out among the rest as super-beasts, as did Lobo, the wolf -king; but I must 

 admit that I personally have never met with a wild beast that has deliberately 

 committed suicide, like Mr. Seton's mustang. 



On page 164 it is stated that the umbrette occupies its huge nest for 

 only one season. Unless disturbed, Scopus umhretta will occupy the same 

 nest for several seasons. Along some of the boulder-strewn mountain- 

 streams in Africa, where sudden spates are of frequent occurrence, this little 

 stork builds its nest, in a suitably-forked tree along the bank, which looks 

 to all intents and purposes just a huge mass of driftwood and plants, were 

 it not placed well above the high-water mark. 



The book is illustrated with photographs, which are all good ; but they have 

 little relation to the text, and seem to have been inserted as an after- thought. 



R. E. Drake-Brockman. 



