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NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



Creatures of the Night ; a Book of Wild Life in Western Britain. 

 By Alfred W. Eees. John Murray. 



We are glad to read another book written by the author of 

 'Ianto the Fisherman,' of which a notice appeared in our last 

 volume. Mr. Eees again proves himself to be an observant 

 naturalist, and it is only a few indeed who can, or who are 

 inclined to, follow his nocturnal watchings. Of course it was 

 found impossible to restrict all the observations to those made 

 during midnight vigils, especially those relating to an active 

 diurnal creature like the Water-Vole, and what we really peruse 

 is a description of the night and day habits of seven most inter- 

 esting species of British mammals. Then again the animals are 

 made to tell their own narrative, an effort fatal to an author 

 who is either not sure of his facts, or who has not a sufficiency 

 of his own observations to enable him to tread on the very firmest 

 ground of information ; from both of these dangers Mr. Eees 

 suffers no impediment. 



The importance of this volume, which we consider almost 

 unique, is in the recital of the life struggles of all these creatures, 

 and their intelligent, not automatic, efforts to preserve their 

 existence and comfort. If disease and poverty are the worst 

 menaces to human life, other animals without the tribal organi- 

 zation possessed by man, are subject in an even more drastic 

 way to the constant terror of sudden death or starvation ; to eat 

 and not be eaten, or to kill and not be killed, seems at least the 

 great problem of their existence, and to them there is a constant 

 terror by noonday as well as by night. And yet their happy 

 moments are probably as frequent as our own, and from the 

 pages of this book we see no indication of a difference in kind, 

 but only of degree in the method of wisdom, not of intellectuality, 

 pursued by man and other animals in the struggle of life. 



The story of the Water-Vole is delightful ; that is one of the 



