394 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



Bird Watching. By Edmund Selous. J. M. Dent & Co. 



Readers of ' The Zoologist ' require no introduction to Mr. 

 Selous. He practically inaugurated a new method of field 

 observation by his " Observational Diary of the Habits of 

 Nightjars," &c., in our volume for 1899. This paper is not 

 included in the volume under notice, but it contains a wealth of 

 information relating to other birds which is in the truest sense 

 original. The time is now fast approaching when ornithological 

 field work — in this country — will no longer be conducted only 

 with the gun. We have abundantly seen what the camera will 

 do ; Mr. Selous has now told us how to work with the field-glass. 

 We shall give no extracts from this book, which demands the 

 perusal of ornithologists ; but we shall consider its main thesis, 

 for, apart from observations, it is a book with a motive. That 

 motive is the sanctity of bird-life — applicable, of course, to other 

 living creatures. 



To Mr. Selous our "zoologists" have been ^^ thanatologists." 

 " Had we as often stalked animals in order to observe them, as 

 we have in order to kill them, how much richer might be our 

 knowledge!" We believe this to be unanswerable, and the 

 writer of this notice must admit that many of the very happiest 

 days of his life passed in procuring specimens are now regarded 

 with very grave suspicion. But we must not exaggerate this 

 emotion. If it is unnecessary to kill for study — and we do not 

 say that in very many cases it is not — it is equally true that it 

 must be wrong to kill for sport,* and by sport the fish must be 

 equally regarded as the bird. The table, as well as the museum, 

 is the culprit. We really enjoyed that piece of Salmon, though 

 it was not necessary to our existence ; the unfortunate Lobster 



■■' The newspapers have recently recorded that the Mackintosh of Mack- 

 intosh has broken the record for a day's Grouse-driving in Scotland, he and 

 his friends having killed more than nine hundred brace in Inverness-shire. 



