RECENT LITERATURE. 



Popular Zoological Literature.* 



There is scarcely anything so irritating as the miserable and clap- 

 trap material put forth by modern publishers as popular zoology. 

 One may read and be entertained by blood thirsty hunting tales where 

 every law of scientific probability and possibility is ignored. So much 

 may be granted to the field of romance. But the absurdities per- 

 petrated in the name of science for the education of youth deserve 

 only condemnation. There is, for example, a so-called " Life of 

 Audubon " bearing the imprint of a well-known firm which does not 

 pretend to present a connected view of the career of this great nat- 

 alist, of wliom the authoress (we mist use the word) evidently knew 

 worse than nothing; but which contains a series of disconnected dia- 

 tribes on natural history subjects which collectively, it is safe to say, 

 present no single adequate or intelligible fact in science but at most 

 illustrate the dangers of inexpert compilation. 



Now-a-days such books usually have some moral — let us say, 

 "the remarkable resemblance of reason to instinct," or "the clear 

 evidence of reason among brutes," or, to be quite safe, the place of 

 the moral is taken by a query, " can such remarkable conduct be due 

 solely to instinct ?" 



Through the ceaseless efforts o^ a score of able scientific writers 

 the idea has been finally inculcated that a study of nature is a duty 

 incumbent upon every child and consequently such trash commands 

 a rather brisk sale ai least during (he holidays. The average wide- 

 awake boy soon detects the futihty of this literature and acquires a 

 very condescending attitude toward natural science, particularly zool- 

 ogy. Much has been said about comparative psychology of late. 

 Unfortunately Romanes is unintelligible to most of the would-be 

 readers and C. Lloy.l Morgan has no double in actual zoological work 

 so our dillitantes are givmg us animal psychology whose only merit 

 _s in being " beastly." 



iPoRTER, J. Hampden. Wild Beasts. A study of the characters and habits 

 of the Elephant, Lion, Leopard, Panther, Jaguar, Tiger, Puma, Wolf and 

 Grizzly Bear, Chas. Scribner's.Sons. 1894. 



