Fepruarv 27, 1908] 



NA rURE 



39: 



THREE ANIMAL BIOGRAPHIES. 



of the illustrations are taken from specimens in the 

 British Museum, and among these special attention 

 may be directed to the one of the Congo buffalo, as 

 an example of what may be accomplished in the way 

 of photographing animals as they stand in the cases 

 of the exhibition galleries. We may, however, ven- 

 ture to take exception to the pliotograph of a very 

 tame-looking park bull being made to do duty for 

 the extinct aurochs ; and we should also like to know- 

 why the author, in defiance of Herberstain's evidence, 

 states that the latter animal was mainly white. The 



MR. LONG is always interesting and original, 

 and he is especially so in the daintily illustrated 

 little volume standing first on our list, of which indi- 

 viduality in animals seems to be the keynote. Pre- 

 mising that no species breeds true in all its indi- 

 viduals, the author urges that analogous differences 

 in temper, disposition, and mind reveal themselves 

 to those who take the trouble to observe closely. All 

 who make pets of cats, dogs, horses, and other domes- 

 ticated animals are fully convinced of the 

 existence in them of individual traits and 

 idiosyncrasies ; and the apparent absence of 

 these in wild species seems due merely to 

 the want of careful and minute observation 

 of their habits. That such individualities 

 do exist the author demonstrates, for 

 example, in the case of the American lynx, 

 which, although normally a cowardly and 

 slinking creature, will on occasion follow 

 the trail of a hunter with as mischievous 

 intent as a panther. .As usual, Mr. Long 

 discusses members of widely different 

 groups, and in the present volume we have 

 delightful peeps into the life-histories of the 

 black bear, the wolf, the wild goose, the 

 trout, and other denizens of the forest and 

 the stream. Where all is good, it is diffi- 

 cult to make a selection ; but we have per- 

 sonally found special interest in the chapter 

 on the bear. Describing the actions of a 

 bear when ant-hunting, the author tells us 

 that " he just knocks the top off the hill, 

 stirs up the nest, and lies down quietly, 

 placing his fore-paws where the ants are 

 thickest. At first he makes no effort to 

 pick up the hurrying insects, workers and 

 fighters, which swarm out of their tunnels. 

 . . . ' Moorween ' waits till they crawl over 

 the big black object that rests over the nest, 

 and then he begins to lick his paws more 

 and more greedily as he tastes the acid 

 things. ... So he gets all he wants, 

 cleanly from his own paws, instead of filling 

 his mouth with dust and chaff, as he must 

 do if he attempted to catch them in any 

 other way." iVIany other passages in this 

 attractive volume bear equally eloquent tes- 

 timony to the closeness with which its 

 author has observed the habits of the 

 creatures he loves so well and describes so 

 graphically. 



In the volume standing second on our list, 

 Mr. Graham Renshaw brings to a close 

 his long series of articles on mammals, 

 interesting either from their rarity or from 

 peculiarities in their structure or habits. 

 The four-and-twenty species here discussed 

 include a very varied selection, ranging 

 from the musk-ox and the European bison 

 to the Pacific walrus, the Tasmanian devil, 

 and the platypus. As in the case of the 



earlier essays, the author deals specially with the his- j assertion that all typical sheep have a lacrymal 

 torical aspect of his subject, and furnishes his readers [ gland (p. 114) seems also to be contrary to fact, while 

 with a large amount of detail connected with sped- ! the statement (p. lo.^) that two Greenland musk- 



nd Voung. 



mens exhibited in menageries and museums. Several 



1 (1) "Whose Home is the Wilderness; =ome 

 Life." By W. J. Long. Pp. xxi + 23o; illustratsc 

 London : Ginn and Co., 1907.) Price 5.C. net. 



(3) "Final N.itural History Essays." By Grah; 

 225; illuslrated. (London and Manchester: Shei 

 Price 6s. net. 



(3) " Home-Life of some Marsh-Bird 

 ~ H. Bahr. Pp. 62 ; 32 plates. (Lon 



:nsh.-iw. Pp. xii-F 

 nd Hughes, 1907.) 



Price 2 



r. erf. 

 NO. 



By Emma 

 Witherby 



nd Co., 1907.) 



2000, VOL. 77] 



oxen exhibited in igoo were the first examples of their 

 race known to science is contradicted on the follow- 

 ing page by a reference to calves received in England 

 in 1S99. 



The author has evidently devoted a large amount 

 of time to working out the history of the various 

 species, and he has certainly succeeded in producing 

 a ver\" attractive volume. 



