Recent Literature. I j^" 



a nature as to be outside the realm of the least shadow of proof, and can 

 only rest on belief or on the promptings of the imagination. 



This sample from the Hermit's repertoire is only one of many that 

 adorn his chapters ; indeed, it is a fair illustration of the general character 

 of the book. His dogmatism in the chapter on ' The Instinct of the Cow- 

 bird ' is only a further illustration of the cock.smeness of ignorance. 

 Apropos of young Cowbirds flocking together, and with the older mem- 

 bers of their kind, in the fall, it is enough to quote : "I will say now, that 

 long before I had opportunity to study the bird, I did not believe it 

 possible for a young bird, by its own knowledge, to hunt up and associate 

 with birds of its kind." Any one approaching an intricate question with 

 this condition of mind can readily see, or imagine (perhaps unconsciouslj') 

 that he sees, just what he desires to see. So our Hermit finds no trouble 

 in solving, to his "belief," all the problems of the Cowbird question. It 

 appears, however, that his first young Cowbird "was big and black," and 

 he "thought it was a male. I made it a male," he says, "in my note-book. 

 While the bird was in the nest I fastened a bit of copper wire to its leg, 

 and the next spring when it returned, I found the bird was a female. I 

 saw her with another female, 1 think it was the mother, visiting birds' 

 nests. So the young Cowbird was educated to lay its eggs in other birds' 

 nests. Nesting is educational and not instinctive." That is his answer 

 to his question, "Why do young Cowbirds lay eggs in other birds' nests 

 instead of building nests for themselves.' " First, young Cowbirds, as all 

 ornithologists know, but as many of Hermit's lay readers may not know, 

 are brown and not black. Second, he savvr his marked young Cowbird the 

 next year, which proved then to be a female, going about with another 

 female, presumed to be her mother, visiting other birds' nests and being 

 thus " educated " as to what to do with her eggs, when in the course of 

 natural events she should have eggs to dispose of! This is a sample of 

 the Hermit's evidence and of his wonderful logic. 



'A Hermit's Wild Friends' is not all bad; it has many delightfully 

 written pages, but it is so obviously permeated with romance that one 

 never knows when to take its pages seriously. It is noticed here not as a 

 contribution to natural history, but as an example of a class of so-called 

 'nature books' that is misleading hosts of credulous readers who are 

 unable to discriminate fact from fiction. Such books have thus a per- 

 nicious influence in giving wrong conceptions of the faculties and habits 

 of animals. Nor is such writing confined to books, but leaves its nauseous 

 trail over our magazines and newspapers. A fine example of this kind 

 of literature appeared recently in 'The Outlook,' entitled 'Animal Sur- 

 gery.'^ The surprise is that such reading matter should find place in so 



1 Animal Surgery. By William J. Long. Author of "Beasts of the Field," 

 "Secrets of the Woods," etc. The Outlook, Vol. LXXV, No. 2, Sept. 12, 

 1903, pp. 122-127. 



