ilooft jBtetos; anD 3^etoieto0 



Under the Roof of the Jungle: A 

 Book of Animal Life in the Guiana 

 Wilds. By Charles Livingston Bull. 

 With 60 full-page plates and many 

 minor decorations from drawings from 

 life by the Author. L. C. Page & Co., 

 Boston. 1911. i2mo. xiv + 271 pages. 



Mr. Bull tells us that, after reading 

 Waterton's 'Wanderings,' he was filled 

 with a great desire to add to the details 

 of the "amazing landscape" but faintly 

 traced by the pioneer English naturalist, 

 and as a result of a journey to Guiana he 

 gives us here, in "story form, fourteen bits 

 of detail." 



Mr. Bull writes entertainingly, and his 

 illustrations, have unusual charm and 

 spirit as well as high artistic merit; and 

 if by the words "story form" we are to 

 believe that his imagination, stimulated 

 by a brief experience in the tropics, has 

 in this book been given full play, we may 

 commend the work of his pen and pencil 

 in describing and portraying scenes from 

 tropical life, most of which are within the 

 bounds of probability. 



If, howe\'er, Mr. Bull asks us to accept 

 this volume as a serious addition to 

 Waterton, and hence to the literature of 

 natural history, and furthermore would 

 have us believe that all his drawings, as 

 the title-page states, were actually made 

 "from life," by which we assume he means 

 from nature, then we should suggest that 

 the book would make a more fitting ap- 

 pendix to Munchausen than to Waterton. 



To go no further than the illustrations, 

 we find therein shown, for example, a 

 jaguar "playing with" an armadillo, 

 "striking at bats," "clutching Muscovy 

 Ducks, or following an ocelot "as far out 

 on the branch as he dared," 



Again, a tapir which had rushed nto 

 the water to free itself from a jaguar 

 which had alighted on its back, is shown 

 as being devoured by caribe fishes, a 

 howling monkey is depicted in the jaws of 

 a boa, an Ibis in the grasp of a jaguarondi, 

 a Cock of the Rock just evading the talons 

 of a Hawk, a Trumpeter in the jaws of a 



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puma, while a Black-necked Swan( a species, 

 by the way, heretofore unrecorded north 

 of southern Brazil!) is being "dragged" 

 from the water by an ocelot. The text 

 abounds in even more remarkable inci- 

 dents. Indeed, we think we can safely 

 say that one might spend his life in Guiana 

 or any other part of tropical America and 

 not see a fraction of the events which 

 Mr. Bull here records after a few weeks' 

 experience. 



Possibly Mr. Bull would not have us 

 consider his work too literally — artists are 

 apt to ask for license with pen as well as 

 with brush — but if his text is not to be 

 taken as an addition to Waterton, and if 

 his illustrations are not from life, he owes 

 it to himself and to the public to say so 

 in terms which leave no doubt as to their 

 meaning. — F. M. C. 



Photography for Bird-Lovers. A Prac- 

 tical Guide. By Bentley Beetham. 

 Witherby & Co., 326 High Holborn, 

 W. C, London. 191 1. i2mo. 18 half- 

 tones, 126 pages. Price, 5 shillings. 



The chapter headings '.\pparatus,' 

 'Nest- P ho togr aphy,' "Photographing 

 Young Birds,' 'Photographing by the 

 Stalking Method,' by the 'Concealment 

 Method,' by 'Concealment and Artificial 

 Attraction,' by 'Rope- work on the Cliff- 

 face,' 'The Photography of Birds in 

 Flight,' 'Bird Photography in Color and 

 in Cinematography,' 'Photographing Birds 

 in Flight' indicate the nature and scope of 

 Mr. Beetham's book. 



The requirements of bird photography 

 vary so endlessly that one's methods are 

 apt to be developed by one's experience. 

 Possibly, therefore, many photographers 

 might not always agree that Mr. Beetham's 

 apparatus or methods were the best. 

 We, for instance, find it difficult to believe 

 that "a few lengths of stout cane" which 

 are to be "thrust into the ground" make 

 a better framework for a blind than^an 

 umbrella with its single supporting rod, 

 or, when used in trees, with none at all. 

 This, however, with many other things in 



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