4 The Field Naturalist's Quarterly Feb. 



ing objects are identical with our own is an assumption 

 which a Httle study of the comparative development of the 

 organs of sensation in different species and orders will show 

 to be quite unthinkable. A dog relies mainly on the sense 

 of smell for purposes of recollection, a cat on hearing, a 

 bird on sight. The total impression, therefore, formed by 

 any animal of its world is probably very different from our 

 impression of its world. The editor of the 'Zoologist,' in 

 his recent paper on this subject in that journal,^ has given 

 his readers an intellectual treat which we would fain hope 

 will be taken advantage of by every student and lover 

 of animals. Those who have never given any thought to 

 this aspect of animal life will be gratefully astonished at 

 the much wider view of creation opened up to them by 

 the thoughtful study of Mr Distant's articles, and the works 

 to which he makes reference. 



Another very delightful paper, which appeared in the 

 'Zoologist ' for October, is that by Mr J. L. Bevir, on "Dante 

 as a Naturalist." The paper has many quotations from the 

 ' Inferno ' in it, and the writer's comments are most inter- 

 esting. We have often thought that a book entitled 

 * Zoology in Literature ' would command a large audience, 

 and after reading this and other notes of the same de- 

 scription from Mr Bevir's pen, it would be good news to 

 know that he was engaged on such a task. We know of 

 no one better qualified for it. 



Mr Bevir is evidently of opinion that the adder takes to 

 water freely in search of food, a point upon which we are 

 somewhat doubtful, never having seen an adder either in 

 water or in any position that would indicate such a habit. 

 The ring snake, of course, passes much time in that element. 



-T* -TV ^ ~^S ^ 



Field naturalists who are also breeders of cattle and 

 horses will find much food for reflection in Professor Cossar 

 Ewart's recent Presidential Address to the Zoological section 

 of the British Association. Professor Ewart took for his 

 subject "The Experimental Study of Variation " in animals, 



' "Animal Sense Perceptions," W. L. Distant, the 'Zoologist,' September 

 1901. 



