NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 73 



We must confess that we should have liked the book better 

 had Dr. Hamilton quoted less from other authors, and given us 

 more of his own experience, especially as many of the volumes 

 quoted are among the most familiar of text-books. 



We are sorry to see old fables revived without any accom- 

 panying contradiction ; as, for example, the story told by the 

 credulous Jesse, of the brooding wild-duck which flew down from 

 her nesting tree with one wing, while she held her young one 

 under the other. How the bird contrived to do this without losing 

 her balance, and perhaps her life, in falling from such a height, 

 the reader is left to discover. 



Dr. Hamilton's remarks are much more entertaining and 

 novel when he gives us the result of his own observations. 

 Thus :— 



" Snakes will take small fish. We were sketching by the side of a 

 lake when suddeuly a commotion in the water near us attracted our 

 attention. We saw a snake had seized a small bleak, and was swimming 

 towards the shore with it in its mouth. The rest of the shoal were 

 following and surrounding the snake, as if inclined to attack it; but it got 

 safely to some hole in the bank, and disappeared from view" (p. 171). 



As might be expected, from his proclivities as an angler, the 

 author is at his best when discoursing of fish and their peculiar- 

 ities (pp. 178—292). He discusses the questions " do fishes 

 hear"? " do they sleep"? and "do they feel pain"? and 

 describes clearly and briefly the structure and function of the 

 swimming or air-bladder (p. 184), which, as4ie says, has a great 

 deal to do with the movements of many species : — 



" Whatever may be the shape, it serves a specific purpose, viz., to alter 

 the specific gravity of the fish, so that it may rise or sink in the water. By 

 simply compressing this bladder by approximating the walls of the 

 abdomen, or by means of a muscular apparatus provided for the purpose 

 upon a principle with which everyone is familiar, the fish sinks in proportion 

 to the degree of pressure to which the contained air is subjected, and as 

 the compressed air is again permitted to expand, the creature becoming 

 more buoyant, rises towards the surface. In many fish (e. g. the Perch) the 

 air-bladder is closed, and there is no escape for the confined air; and in 

 those fish with this form of bladder which live at great depths, the very 

 bringing them up to the surface (the air or gas being no longer compressed 

 by the weight of the water) bursts the swimming bladder. This is often 

 seen in fishing for Cod." 



ZOOLOGIST.— FEB. 1891. G 



