BOOK REVIEWS 159 



; "Oh now he took out some queer wee things 



That looked Hke grains of com, 

 But they were Httle tubers, round. 

 Called 'Squirrel Corn.'" 



Here is another : 



"From out the sky in passing by 

 Down near the stream where oft I dream 

 The fairy danced with glee 

 And here below, she did bestow 

 Her golden slippers to the marsh." 



Here is a saraple of the so-called nature study : "Mr. Monkey- 

 faced Barn Owl came and was welcomed by the fairy queen. 

 He brought his family with him. They carried meadow mice, 

 barn mice rats, jumping mice, shrews aiid star-nosed moles, and 

 these made enough meat for a whole party of owls." 



There are some tasteful photographic illustrations, but the 

 line drawings and free-hand sketching that make up the bulk of 

 the illustrations are on a par with the literary inferiority of the 

 book. 



The Life of the Fly. J. Henri Fabre. 477 pp. Dodd, Mead 



& Co. Price $1.50. 



This is a translation of one of the works of that most patient 

 French student of insect life. Fabre's simple and forceful writing 

 is quite as remarkable as his accurate and worth-while observa- 

 tions. The English translation seems well done so that it puts at 

 the disposal of English readers this admirable book upon the fly. 

 In the book in addition to chapters on the life of the fly there are 

 several that are autobiographical and some of the chapters while 

 nominally on the fly lead into problems of large interest, such 

 as, for instance, the chapter on hereditary. The book is not 

 only interesting reading but there are many suggestions of ways 

 and means of studying insects. Fabre's experiments on the intel- 

 ligence of the insect are as ingenious as they are simple. The 

 book is written primarily for the layman, not for the scientific 

 specialist. As a matter of fact the specialist will read it with as 

 keen interest as the laymen, and Fabre has the happy faculty of 

 making commonplace things matters of interest and of suggesting 

 the more profound significance of things that seem trivial. 



