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 NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



Sir Victor Brooke, Sportsman and Naturalist: a Memoir of his 

 Life and Extracts from his Letters and Journals. Edited 

 by Oscar Leslie Stephen. With a Chapter on his Re- 

 searches in Natural History by Sir William H. Flower, 

 K.C.B. Portraits and Illustrations. 8vo, pp. 266. London : 

 John Murray. 1894. 



The name of the late Sir Victor Brooke is known to most 

 people as that of an enthusiastic lover of field sports, a good shot 

 with both gun and rifle, a hunter of big game, and for some years 

 Master of the Pau Foxhounds. To the readers of this journal 

 his name will be familiar as that of an observant field naturalist 

 who made a special study of the horned ruminants, and published 

 some excellent papers on Wild Sheep, Wild Oxen, Deer, and Ante- 

 lopes, in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society.' From the 

 time he began his mountaineering, at the age of nineteen, with the 

 ascent of Sneehatten, followed by his ascent of Vaugacullen, the 

 highest peak of the Lofodens, his love of travel and exploration 

 knew no rest. To the pursuit of Elk and Reindeer in Scandinavia 

 succeeded the more exciting pleasure of stalking Moufflon in 

 Sardinia, shooting Bears and Bouquetin in the Pyrenees, riding 

 down a Grey Wolf in the deserts of Cairo, and finally killing 

 Elephants and Tigers in India. The biggest " tusker" on record 

 fell to his rifle, and he was fortunate enough to bag that rara 

 felis in terris, a black Panther, which constituted one of his most 

 cherished trophies. In the Neilgherry Hills he stalked Ibex, and 

 not content with the pursuit of these wild animals in the Old 

 World, he proceeded in J 890 to America, where his experience 

 amongst the game of that country, if less exciting because less 

 dangerous, was almost as delightfnl. In the journals which he has 

 left behind him, and in his letters home which have, been pre- 

 served, he has left a most interesting yet unaffected record of his 

 prowess as a sportsman, and his keen powers of observation as a 

 naturalist. His friend Mr. Leslie Stephen, as editor of the volume 

 before us, has given us a delightful memoir of one whom it was 

 our pleasure and privilege to know well, and we have seldom read 

 a brighter book. Sir William Flower has contributed a chapter 

 on the nature and value of Brooke's scientific work, including a 



