^^^;- SOME NEW BOOKS. 701 



to those possessed by ourselves ; and yet in many cases we do not 

 anthropomorphise sufficiently. As Mr. Beddard, a little further on, 

 asks : "Judging of birds by our own standard — which is the way in 

 which nearly all the problems relating to colour have been approached 

 — does it seem likely that we should fail to see a caterpillar, perhaps as 

 long as, or longer than, the arm, of an obviously different texture 

 from the branches, and displaying in many cases through its trans- 

 parent skin the pulsations of the heart, for which we were particularly 

 searching ? " 



It is also important to notice that certain usually protectively- 

 coloured insects select certain circumscribed situations on trees, while 

 many birds habitually seek their prey on different parts of a tree ; 

 and with regard to arboreal animals, it is certainly striking that 

 green is not so universal among these as tawny among those which 

 dwell among sand. 



The heading " Protection often due to multiplicity of surrounding 

 objects " is distinctly suggestive, attention being drawn to the diffi- 

 culty of finding an object on a carpet of compUcated pattern, as all 

 know who have hunted the almost proverbially evasive shirt-stud. 

 Elsewhere Mr. Beddard states that he has seen twenty people pass 

 so conspicuous an insect as the common Tiger Moth. The chapter 

 on warning coloration contains records of some new and interesting 

 experiments, which certainly do not always bear out orthodox views 

 of this subject. Most important, too, is the reference to the uncer- 

 tainty as to the degree of perception of form by insects. The 

 extraordinary indifference to enemies displayed by these animals 

 must have struck everyone who has watched them, and is, perhaps, 

 attributable to their small opportunities of acquiring experience. In 

 speaking of Protective Mimicry, Mr. Beddard suggests that it possibly 

 originated between forms much alike to start with, and the striking 

 resemblances frequently observable where mimicry can hardly be 

 possible would tend to confirm this view. Neither does mimicry 

 appear to be always deceptive, it certainly is not so to the average 

 collector. 



There is an interesting closing chapter on Sexual Coloration, 

 and a sentence in it with reference to the work of sexual selection in 

 settling this, is at once characteristic and important. " The question, 

 however, cannot either stand or fall upon its probability or 

 improbability. Actual observation can alone settle the matter." 



This may well be taken as the keynote of the book, which is 

 thus of a t} pe eminently desirable in days when theory so far out- 

 runs observation, which, like the patient goddesses of Homeric story, 

 has such hard work to do in repairing the breaches left by a rapid 

 predecessor. It remains to be said that the book is in typographical 

 and illustrative execution most attractive, while the coloured plates 

 may well make us wonder " how they do it at the price." 



Essay on Life and Death. [Essai sur la Vie et la Mort.J Bibliotheque Evolu- 

 tioniste, vol. iv. By Armand Sabatier, Professor of the Faculty of Sciences at 

 Montpellier. Paris: Ve. Babe et Cie., 1892. 



This volume owes its existence to an attempt on the part of the 

 Professors of Montpellier to bring themselves into closer relations 

 with their city. It is based on a series of popular lectures — parallel 

 in many ways to English University Extension lectures — given by 

 Professor Sabatier to the people of his university town. 



