386 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



and this, combined with a fair-sized aquarium and vivarium in 

 every school, and a weekly excursion with a good field naturalist, 

 would do for children nearly as much as all the books. Like the 

 people we all meet who quote from the Bible and Shakespeare 

 without ever reading one or the other, so we should have a 

 generation growing up who were at least imbued with an interest in 

 animal life. Once create the love of zoology, and all the rest will 

 follow ; a knowledge from books alone is always second-hand. 

 One might as well expect an appreciation of art from Midas 

 because he has purchased a picture gallery. 



This book is a means to an end, and will doubtless help on 

 the work. It gives so much information that the space at disposal 

 is not sufficient, in many cases, to elucidate the details, and 

 hence the authors are often, like preachers, a little over the heads 

 of their congregation. The illustrations are apt, but very often 

 borrowed — though with all acknowledgment — and sometimes 

 "after Brehm." Whether illustrations should be taken from the 

 works of the taxidermist is a very open question, even when 

 representing such excellent work as may be found in the Field 

 Columbian Museum. Sometimes the text is a little vague, as 

 when we read that " the Crocodile in the strict sense is found in 

 the Nile and other African rivers," as well as in certain American 

 localities, without any reference to its oriental habitats. 



As an appendix, there is a very useful and suggestive outline 

 of laboratory work, and a bibliography of standard works. 



In Bird-land with Field-glass and Camera. By Oliver G. Pike. 

 T. Fisher Unwin. 



If under the pseudonym of scientific ornithology the ubi- 

 quitous collector did much damage in " bird-land," by the 

 indiscriminate acquisition of eggs and nests, science seems now 

 to have provided the antidote in the camera. The lovely photo- 

 graphs of nests and eggs, true to nature, and possessing all the 

 real charms of the environment, which now embellish ornitho- 

 logical literature, will probably create a more exact knowledge of 

 these objects, and prevent much unnecessary destruction. Better 

 that the trade of the dealer should perish than that the birds must 



