NA JURE 



69 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1919. 



THE MISSING THEME. 



Wild Life of the World: A Descriptive Survey of 

 the Geographical Distribution of Animals. In 

 three volumes. By R. Lydekker. Vol. i., 

 pp. xiv + 472; vol. ii., pp. xii + 440; vol. iii., 

 pp. xi + 457. (London: F. Warne and Co., 

 igi6.) Price 4Z. 45. three vols. 



IT is doubtful whether any modern naturalist 

 other than the late Mr. Richard Lydekker 

 could have written such a book as this. Endowed 

 with a remarkable m^njory, boundless energy, and 

 a facile pen, he spent his days in acquiringf a 

 perfectly unrivalled knowledge of natural history 

 and in writing about it. No matter what aspect 

 presented itself for discussion, it found Lydekker 

 and his pen both ready and willing. A friend in 

 common, writing for a newspaper, once confessed 

 to Lydekker that he had great difficulty in finding 

 themes for his weekly articles. "Pooh! I find 

 no difficulty," said Lydekker. "I do not require 

 a theme — I think of a "a'ord." Using every pos- 

 sible moment and opportunity, and writing at 

 incredible speed, Lydekker 's literary output was 

 enormous ; it covered, moreover, the whole wide 

 field between comparative anatomy, palaeontology, 

 and systematic work on one hand, and field 

 natural history and sport on the other. While 

 writing, at least, he was never filled with doubts 

 or tormented by vain cares ; whatever came into 

 his head first he wrote, and what he wrote he 

 printed light-heartedly as soon as possible. One 

 scarcely likes to apply that harsh epithet "care- 

 less " to writing with so much good, solid work 

 as its foundation, but the dangers of Lydekker's 

 methods are obvious, and as a result one cannot 

 place the normal degree of trust in any book that 

 he wrote. Nevertheless, the fact that his books 

 contain a huge store of real and valuable informa- 

 tion is beyond all dispute and a testimony to the 

 industry and genius of the author. 



The three stately volumes now before us repre- 

 sent Lydekker's last effort. Well printed "and 

 beautifully illustrated, they appiear unusually 

 attractive. Opening them and reading at random, 

 one is usually pleased and sometimes delighted 

 with the text, and no doubt to many persons the 

 book will be not only useful, but also a precious 

 mine of information. Casual reading, however, is 

 \not the purpose of the book; it aims at being a 

 descriptive survey of the geographical distribu- 

 tion of animals ; but an attempt to read it as a 

 whole proves to be a formidable and wearisome 

 task, which one leaves sooner or later with a 

 feeling of disappointment. From the title one 

 expects a connected narrative in which there will 

 be an attempt to expound, albeit in a popular 

 manner, some of the principles underlying geo- 

 graphical distribution, to show how the present 

 depends upon the past, and to bring home to the 

 reader, however ignorant of zoolog}', the funda- 

 mental importance of such things as isolation — 

 NO. 2604, VOL. 104] 



in its numerous forms — in the great scheme of 

 evolution, 



It would not matter at all what sort of view 

 or theory the author developed in his narrative; 

 he might have proceeded, with equal advantage, 

 along the lines of his own " Geographical History 

 of Mammals," or pursued the attractive, though 

 totally divergent, courses of Scharff on one hand, 

 or of Matthew on the other. Books with an endo- 

 skeleton are generally far better than those with 

 a mere exo-skeleton. In one case the reader has 

 something definite and more or less fascinating 

 to follow; even when the writer's style is harsh 

 and his phrasing none too happy, there is a 

 plot which holds one fast while it gradually 

 reveals itself in a well-connected stream of facts. 

 In the other, the facts are disjointed and scattered 

 — interesting and important in themselves, per- 

 haps, but with little or no apparent bearing upon 

 one another ; in such a case the author may be 

 endowed with superlative gifts of language and 

 expression, enabling him to charm us on every 

 page, perhaps, when taken in small doses, but 

 he can never succeed in holding the attention of 

 the reader from cover to cover. " Wild Life of 

 the World " is in all essential respects a distin- 

 guished example of the books without endo- 

 skeletons. In this case, too, alas ! Lydekker did 

 not trouble to think of a theme — though he 

 thought of a great many words. 



The work calls for little more in the way of 

 general criticism, but it may be worth while to 

 direct attention to one or two specific matters. 

 As an instance of the hasty selection of the facts 

 dealt with, we may mention that, while more 

 than two pages (vol. i., pp. 212-14) are devoted 

 to a discussion of European field-mice (Microtu.s), 

 no mention is made of the Orkney vole (M. orca- 

 densis), which from the point of view of geo- 

 graphical distribution is one of the most interest- 

 ing and important species; nevertheless, room is 

 found for a whole paragraph dealing with the 

 characters and habits of a phantom species, 

 M. campestris, described from Brunswick 

 long ago by Blasius, bilt generally admitted now 

 for many years to be nothing more than a mis- 

 identification of the common Continental vole, 

 M. arvalis. 



In reading the book we have noticed few mis- 

 prints. There is, however, an unfortunate trans- 

 position in the account of the cuckoo (vol. ♦., 

 pp. go-q6) which may bewilder Ihe reader. The 

 matter from the word "moreover" in line 2 of 

 p. 93 down to the end of the paragraph seems 

 to be a misplaced continuation of paragraph 2 of 

 p. 91, dealing with the colour and markings of 

 the eggs. The name of the inventor of the 

 harpoon-gun, Svend Foyn, has been converted 

 into " Sven Foyle " (vol. iii., p. 310). It is with 

 considerable satisfaction that we notice that 

 Lydekker endorsed the view that whales and seals 

 in southern latitudes are now in need of a measure 

 of protection, and that our own Government has 

 to bear the weight of direct responsibility in this 

 matter. The quite indiscriminate and unscientific, 



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