26 



SOME NEW NATURAL HISTORY BOOKS. 



Notwithstanding the extraordinary rise in the cost of printing, paper, 

 binding, and in the production of books generally, there seems to be no 

 decrease in the number of works issued dealing with Natural Science, 

 and although the prices in some cases are rather severe, the quality of 

 many of the publications is quite equal to that issued in pre-war days. 

 Messrs. Longmans, as usual, seem to take the lead w'ith the issue of 

 Vol. I. of Thorburn's British Mammals, Vol. II. of which will be 

 issued in the spring (2 vols, 10 guineas net). This handsome book is a 

 companion to the Volumes on ' British Birds ' and ' A Naturalist's 

 Sketch Book,' already referred to in this journal, and besides containing 

 details of the various Mammals, there are remarks on the Distribution, 

 Colour, Measurements and Habits. The species dealt with in the present 

 volume include 12 Bats, 5 Insect -eating Mammals, 15 Flesh-eating 

 Mammals, 14 Rodents, 4 Ruminants and 20 WTiales, etc. It contains 

 25 plates in Mr. Thorburn's inimitable style, in addition to which there 

 are a number of pen-and-ink sketches as tail-pieces, etc. Not cjnly do 

 the plates portray the Mammals in characteristic attitudes, but the 

 artist completes an effective picture by including the materials in which 

 the particular animals revel. Thus, for instance, the plate of ' The 

 Dormouse ' represents a single specimen which does not occupy more 

 than 2I ins. of the plate, and yet the colour-scheme of the autumn leaves 

 and fruits, spiders, etc., all go to form a very pleasing and artistic 

 picture. Just now, when particular interest is centred on the Bats, 

 Mr. Thorburn's illustrations are especially appropriate, as he takes an 

 extraordinary care to represent the colour of the fur as accurately as 

 possible. At first the illustration of the Walrus was a little unexpected 

 in this volume, but, of course, the species has been recorded in British, 

 waters, as also have various species of seals, which are so admirably 

 drawn. By an extraordinary coincidence the face of the Badger, Plate 

 18, can be seen from two distinct points of view, though in one of them 

 the left eye (which is the ' mouth ' from another) appears to have been 

 damaged by wasps, the comb of which is providing a meal ! 



Of distinctly scientific value, and on quite original lines, is Dr. J. 

 Ritchie's handsome volume on The Influence of Man on Animal 

 Life in Scotland : A Study in Fauna! Evolution (Cambridge University 

 Press, 550 pages, 28/- net). Dr. Ritchie's lectures contained in this 

 volume were written with the object of tracing the effect man has had 

 in various ways upon the fauna of his country. "A result of this enquiry 

 has been to emphasize the instability and changefulness of a fauna, and 

 a word may be said as to the general place of man's influence in the 

 sum of change. Two types of changefulness affect a country' 's animals — 

 one temporary in incidence and local in effect, a function of circumstance ; 

 the other persistent and general, a function of time. Within itself a 

 fauna is in a constant state of uneasy restlessness, an assemblage of 

 creatures which in its parts ebbs and flows as one local influence or 

 another plays upon it. It may be that a succession of favourable seasons 

 breeds many field-voles, and the tide of the field-vole r^ce flows to its 

 high-water mark of numbers. But this new food-supply brings to the 

 feast hungry owls, hawks, stoats and others, and as the tide of the beasts 

 and birds of prey flows, that of the voles ebbs. Yet no sooner is the ebb 

 apparent than the carnivores themselves decline for lack of food ; and 

 eventually the dead level is reached again. So the story goes on — there 

 is a constant ebb and flow of parts within the whole, a fauna is in imstable 

 equililirium, the ' balance of nature ' is never cjuite struck." Dr. Ritchie 

 begins with ' Scotland as man found it,' and refers to tlie extinct animals, 

 and the conditions availing in prehistoric times. He then deals with 

 the various species of cattle, sheep, horses and other similar animals ; 

 animals for food ; their protection for sport, or for superstitious reasons, 

 and so on, the whole forming the most fascinating series of articles, cjuite 



Naturalist 



