14 



NATURE 



[March 2, 191 1 



the so-styled "expert specialist" of recent device; we 

 have heard of this sort before, notably in connection 

 with Indian agriculture, where he has been weighed 

 and found — not altopfether infallible. Life is com- 

 promise, and perhaps the best expert for India still 

 is the service-man with a particular natural bent; 

 the author almost admits this in his remarks upon the 

 Forest School at Dehra Dun. 



Much might bo said of the illustrations, from 



pology, botany, or horticulture, should invariably be 

 written by specialists who can bring new facts to our 

 notice and place before us convincing, perhaps start- 

 ling, deductions. Otherwise, it may be said without 

 peevishness that mature readers to-day are becoming 

 a little tired of the " literary " treatment of such sub- 

 jects, especially those connected with biology. The 

 truth is of itself so marvellous, so spectacular, and 

 interesting (if rightly put) that we do not wish for 



Fig. 2. — A " Fire Line " in the Gonda Forests From " Forest Life and Sport in India." 



photographs by the author's wife, that adorn the 

 book. Some of them stir the heart "like the sweet 

 sound that breathes upon a bank of violets." 



DISTINGUISHED ANIMALS.'' 



IT may be said at once that any parent, guardian, 

 uncle or aunt, who is on the look-out for a suit- 

 able gift-book to present to intelligent boys and girls, 

 will find what he wants in Mr. Perry Robinson's "Of 

 Distinguished Animals." A better school prize could 

 not be given. But it is not quite the type of book 

 suited for a revie\y in Nature, nor was its original 

 prototype — a series of articles — q^ite up to what is 

 expected now by the readers of The Times, which 

 in the course of the year iqog published a large pro- 

 portion of this book under the title of " Studies in the 

 Zoological Gardens." 



This class of writing on natural history is some- 

 what out of date for grown-up readers, and, above 

 all, subscribers to The Times. That The Times 

 should deal with zoology or any other " ology " is 

 what one would expect of it from time to time, but 

 articles which it might publish on zoology, anthro- 



1 'Of Distinguished Animals." By H. Perry Robinson. Pp. x + 234. 

 London : W. Heinemann, igio.) Price &r. net. 



references to what imperfectly educated poets and 

 prose writers thought of this or that beast or plant 

 before the twentieth century, unless, of course, any- 

 thing can be extracted from old writings throwing a 

 fresh light on questions of geographical distribution, 

 domestication, and the inter-relations between man 

 and other forms of life. 



The work under review is abundantly supplied with 

 some of the best photographs that have ever been 

 published of beasts, birds, and reptiles. But it does 

 not contain much original matter in its letterpress, 

 which is avowedly a long string of quotations in- 

 tended to illustrate a number of remarkable tvpes of 

 beast, bird, and reptile, to be seen in the London 

 Zoological Gardens. Not many of these quotations 

 are new to the practised student of zoologv, and a 

 few of them are not quite true either in the facts thev 

 relate or in the deductions to be drawn from them. 

 In the reference to the gorilla (p. 129), the assertion 

 that the "gorillas" alleged to have been brought back 

 bv Han no, the Carthaginian, from the west coast of 

 Africa, "can hardly have been other than baboons." 

 is not one which can be maintained, if the statements 

 relating to Hanno's expedition §re carefullv con- 

 sidered in connection with the critical remarks thereon 

 in Sir Thomas Bunburv's " Historv of Ancient 



NO. 2157, VOL. 86] 



