38o 



NATURE 



[January iS 



the buckshot methot! in denling with a wounded tiger 

 that has to br foll«»\ved on foot. 



Thoufih in many passages— particularly in a short 

 dif^rcssion on his tame sambur and his other |x.*ts — 

 the author rrveals a kindly humour, he is far removed 

 from the drossy st-ntiment of some of the camera 

 sportsmen who rejjard ail killing as murder. He 

 admits that the sporting instinct (" the killinj^ in- 

 stinct, if you will ") may be a brutal instinct, but it>. 

 brutality does not much trouble him if men "refrain 

 from the killing of any inoffensive animal save a male 

 with a trophy worth the taking." 



We like the way in which the author speaks of his 

 native attendants. He always has a good word for 

 them, and if occasionally — for such things are — he is 

 provoked to address a casual hand in terms that are 

 not exactly complimentary, he is always ready to 

 listen to an explanation and to admit <\tiniiating 

 circumstances. 



dog appears in quite an innocent and di^'nire <1 

 guise. 



There is no index; but as the tabl- 

 verv full, and as each chapter deals with one » > 

 subject, no one who is not hound to formul 

 miss it. 



THE BRITISH SCHOOL \l Mill-.' 



IN its sixteenth volume, the "Annual " ot the Hntisn 

 School at .Xthens has returned to a manageable 

 si/e for its format, and in this respect i> 

 great improvement on its immediate predecessors. 



The remarkable excav.'ition at Sparta has come iw 

 a close, and the description of it ends in this volume. 

 The final work of the season of 1909-10, which is 

 described, consisted chiefly in picking up the pieces 

 that remained. The most important of these ^v iv th.> 

 e-xcavation of the remains of the Mvcenaean tov 



'■ Sport on the Nilgiris." 



There is so little for even a carping critic to gleek 

 at in this excellent book that we almost hesitate to 

 express our surprise that anyone nowadays should 

 talk of malaria as if it were in any direct way due 

 to disturbance of the soil. It is also unexpected to 

 find an author who has so much philosophy in him, 

 and so much sympathy with nature, referring to the 

 mental processes of animals as if they were all a kind 

 of instinct, and appearing to ignore the fact that many 

 illustrious authorities, from Hume onwards, have sup- 

 ported and justified the opinion that the inferences of 

 the higher animals differ from the inferences of the 

 paragon man not in nature, but only in degree. 



The illustrations are wonderfully well reproduced, 

 and most of them are extremely good in themselves ; 

 but the elephant is far from representing the magni- 

 ficent creature of the author's election, and the wild 



NO. 2203, VOL. S8] 



the Menelalon. These are of interest as showing that 

 the valley of the Eurotas was only occupied in late 

 Mycenaean times; no trace of any period before " Late 

 Minoan HL" was found. Of this period houses with 

 typical pottery of that age were discovered. These 

 are described by the director of the School, Mr. R. NL 

 Dawkins, who also sums up the results of the dis- 

 cover}' and excavation of the Temple of Artemis 

 Orthia, which has shed such well-deserved lustre on 

 British archaeology. This history of the famous 

 sanctuary is traced, from the establishment of the 

 earliest altar on the site by the Dorians, down to 

 Roman times. The importance of this '" record " 

 piece of archaeological work is evident, and its two 



» "The Annual of the British School of .\thens.' No. xvL S.essio 

 .1909-10. Pp. ix-t-343+.\vii plates. (London; AlacmillanandCo., Ltd.,n.d.) 

 Price 25*. net. 



