NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 35 



Flashlights on Nature. By Grant Allen With 150 Illustra- 

 tions by Frederick Enock. Geo. Newnes, Lim. 



This book is a happy combination of the literary versatility 

 of the author — too little remembered as the writer of ' The 

 Colour-Sense,' — and of the conscientious illustrations of Mr. 

 Enock, who as described by Mr. Grant Allen is " an enthusiastic 

 and observant naturalist, who thinks nothing of sitting up all 

 night if so he may catch a beetle's egg at the moment of hatch- 

 ing; and who will keep his eye to the microscope for twelve 

 hours at a stretch, relieved only by occasional light refreshment 

 in the shape of a sandwich, if so he may intercept some rare 

 chrysalis at its moment of bursting," &c. 



These sketches, or "flashlights," are written in the clear and 

 easy style which is usually termed " popular," but which will well 

 repay the perusal of " serious " readers. Under titles which 

 smack of what is sometimes described as " sensational," we find 

 that " a beast of prey " is no other than our old friend " the 

 common garden spider," of which a very full and interesting 

 account is given, and a female of which — "Rosalind" — was 

 observed closely through the whole of a season. This spider 

 was seen to attack and conquer wasps, a subject recently dis- 

 cussed in these pages. The doings of Shrikes are described as 

 " A Woodland Tragedy," and in discussing the capricious cha- 

 racter of their distribution in this country, our author accepts a 

 now very general view, " that this relative frequency or scarcity 

 depends upon the distribution of their proper food-insects." 

 Indeed, just as we all know that " an army fights upon its 

 stomach," so we are beginning to understand that "commissariat 

 lies at the bottom of most problems of animal life." 



It is a pleasure to meet with an interpreter of nature who 

 can translate her record into plain and happy language, especially 

 when there is so often a tendency to predicate profundity by 

 obscurity ; but Mr. Grant Allen's pen is sometimes almost too 

 facile, and literary accomplishments run away with the unadorned 

 natural facts. Thus we read, "In the soft slimy mud, the shoots 

 of the curled pond-weed lie by during the frozen period, hearing 

 the noise of the gliding skates above them " ; the mandibles of a 

 "mosquito-larva" are not too happily termed a "big moustache," 



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