October 8, 1914] 



NATURE 



141 



15) CasselVs Natural History. By F. Martin 



Duncan. Pp. xx + 432 + plates. (London: 



Cassell and Co., Ltd., 1913.) Price 95. net. 

 (6) Animals of the Past: An Account of Some of 



the Creatures of the Ancient World. By F, A. 



Lucas. Pp. XX + 266 + plates. (New York : 



American Museum of Natural History, 191 3.) 

 {7) Butterflies and Moths in Romance and Reality. 



By W. F. Kirby. Pp. 178 + 28 plates. (London : 



S.P.C.K., 1913.) Price 55. net. 

 {8) Common British Moths. By A. M. Stewart. 



Pp. viii + 88+ 15 plates. (London: A. and C. 



Black, 1913.) Price is. 6d. net. 

 (i) IV yr R. PYCRAFT has written a very inter- 

 IVX estingf comparative study of the love- 

 making of a great range of animals selected from 

 most of the main zoological groups. The ex- 

 planation given by Darwin as to the origin of 

 the secondary sexual characters is now, he 

 answers, rather out of date, and Wallace's 

 " arguments for sexual selection are far from con- 

 vincing and often inconsistent." The "theme" 

 of the book is to show that a sharp line must be 

 drawn between those attributes which are neces- 

 sary to achieve individual survival and those to 

 achieve the survival of the race-factors which, in 

 the latter, are embraced under sexual selection. 

 Much, Mr. Pycraft believes, hitherto attributed 

 to the action of sexual selection alone — such as 

 the behaviour of animals during sexual activity 

 and the colours they display at this season — is 

 largely governed by the action of " hormones " 

 (the secretions of various ductless glands in the 

 body). " Suggestion " is also necessary', but " sug- 

 gestion does not suggest " till the hormones have 

 rendered the system inflammable ; " suggestion 

 by display " of some kind, as an aphrodisiac, is 

 a necessity, or " how else can desire be indicated ? 

 Here is sexual selection." The limits of space 

 assigned to us forbid our discussing this question 

 — which is very interesting, but perhaps less 

 entirely novel than the author realises — beyond 

 mildly "suggesting" that Mr. Pycraft's system 

 seems so saturated by one or more hormones as 

 to "exalt" his particular point of view somewhat 

 at the expense of others. We heartily recommend 

 the book, nevertheless. It contains eighty illus- 

 trations on art paper. 



(2) Captain Stigand is a well-known African 

 official, devoted to hunting, who always provides 

 his readers with an entertaining, well-written 

 story. The unending stream of books on big- 

 g:ame hunting has, however, now made us fairly 

 intimately acquainted with the lives and artifices 

 of both the hunter and the hunted, so that from 

 this point of view the author's elephant-hunting 

 episodes are less interesting to the general student 

 NO. 2345, VOL. 94] 



of nature than the discussion we have in his book 

 upon protective coloration applied to big game. 

 Mr. Roosevelt, in a foreword to the volume, avers, 

 in his usual strenuous language, that the extreme 

 theories of Poulton and Thayer " on this subject " 

 have no bases whatever "in fact," and Mr. 

 Wallace has "strained the recognition-mark 

 theory to an impossible point," but that Captain 

 Stigand 's observations now leave "no excuse for 

 further mistakes in the matter." But for the 

 editorial fiat as to space, we are of opinion that 

 it might still be shown that " all is not yet up " 

 with the earlier theories. We can only refer 

 those interested in the subject to the book, to 

 wrestle out the matter for themselves. 



(3) Mrs. C. Villiers Stuart's pages form charm- 

 ing memorials of the wonderful old, beflowered, 

 and be-avenued gardens of the Indian emperors, 

 with their warbling fountains and their running 

 waters, so delicious to eye and ear in a parched 

 land. She describes them not only in choice and 

 delicate language, but depicts them in water- 

 colours of great beauty and charm. One of the 

 author's objects, apparently, in writing this book 

 has been to give expression to the hope that in 

 the New Delhi similar gardens may be reproduced. 

 This is a delightful vision ; but we greatly fear 

 that the romance that haloes the Mughals and 

 the beauties of their harems, of whom these 

 walled pleasaunces were the shady ambulatory, 

 cannot be revived in our days, and be the gardens 

 of New Delhi never so gay and be-fountained, 

 they will never reproduce those delightful en- 

 closures as they appear to us through the sunlit 

 haze of four hundred years. 



(4) We have found the little book by M. Paul 

 Noel, director of the Laboratory of Agricultural 

 Entomology of the Seine-Inferieure, with the 

 quaint title of " Ce que j'ai vu chez les betes," 



i very delightful reading. It is written in the very 

 i simple, elegant, but exact language for which 

 j French scientific writers are so distinguished, and 

 I deals with a large number of the common insects, 

 ! birds, reptiles, and mammals of the country. The 



author describes and figures several very admir- 

 I able automatic appliances — for catching insects, 

 i rearing larvae, and other purposes — invented by 

 I him in the course of his experiments and observa- 

 ! tions. Had it not a better use, it would form a 



very excellent French primer for young nature 



students. 



(5) Mr. F. Duncan's book may be called a 

 digest of the several volumes of the well-known 



i "Cassell's Natural History," by the late Dr. P. 



I Martin Duncan, although to attempt to deal 



adequately with the whole animal kingdom, as is 



I done here, in a comparatively small volume, is, 



