BOOK NOTICES. 



NATURE STUDY AND NATURE STUDY 

 BOOKS. 



During the lasc few years a great many 

 "nature books" have come from the Ameri- 

 can press. A few of these have had some- 

 what to do in creating the widespread in- 

 terest in nature study, which is such a 

 marked feature in the educational and popu- 

 lar tendencies of the present time. But 

 most of these books are, rather, a result of 

 this tendency, and in nowise contribute 

 further inspiration themselves, because they 

 have been written by people who do not 

 know nature when they meet her out of 

 doors. In too many cases the authors of na- 

 ture study books are students of nature only 

 as dilettanti, who have had no training in 

 the exact methods of science. They know 

 neither the method nor the meaning of 

 nature, and have curious conceptions of 

 what naturalists mean by "species," "en- 

 vironment," "adaptation," "survival of the 

 r, ttest," "protective mimicry," or any of the 



•ndamental facts and principles of evolu- 

 i. Nature study, with many of these 

 ers, is imagination, emotion, and poetry, 

 s of the "Oh, how charming!" sort, 

 h applies human attributes and human 

 enclature to all sorts of animals, and 

 tits, too, for that matter, in a most reck- 



ss and extravagant manner. The style is 



at of the kindergarten, wherein entertain- 

 ment is the end sought. 



But not all the recent nature books 

 are of this kind. Some of them have been 

 written by men, and some by women, too, 

 who have had careful scientific training, 

 who are field naturalists of wide experience, 

 and who have a direct and intimate ac- 

 quaintance with the animals or plants about 

 which they write. Such a book is Dug- 

 more's "Bird Homes," and another such 

 book is Howard's "Insect Book," recently 

 published by Doubleday, Page & Co., New 

 York. Dr. Howard, United States Ento- 

 mologist, is a wideawake, thoroughgoing 

 student of nature at first hand. He is a 

 college man who got his early training in 

 the method of science under Professor 

 Comstock at Cornell. He tries to see things 

 as they really are, and insists that you do 

 the same when using his "Insect Book." 

 The mental attitude is important in the 

 study of any subject, and in nature study 

 there is but one that is at all worth while. 

 That is a determination to see things as 

 they really are. 



Imagination is not much needed in the 

 study of nature. Casting away the imagina- 

 tion dote n«t leave the study of nature or 



anything else cold and uninteresting. To 

 see a fact as it really is is quite as fascinat- 

 ing and satisfactory as to imagine 40 things 

 that are not so. Besides, it is worth a great 

 deal more in character building and every 

 other way. Dr. Howard's book is written 

 on this principle. While entirely scientific 

 it is no less entertaining. For that matter 

 the best and most entertaining nature books 

 are those which have been written by peo- 

 ple who have had scientific training. The 

 nature books not so written belong in the 

 same category with newspaper science. 



The "Insect Book" is a popular account 

 of the bees, wasps, ants, grasshoppers, flies 

 and other North American insects, exclu- 

 sive of the butterflies, moths and beetles, 

 with full life histories, tables and bibliog- 

 raphies. There is to-day almost nothing 

 that covers authoritatively, yet popularly, 

 this vast field, so that the present volume 

 has special importance. With 300 text-cuts, 

 16 colored and 32 black and white pages 

 made direct from the insects themselves, 

 the subject is abundantly as well as beauti- 

 fully illustrated. 



The language is simple and easily under- 

 stood by anyone who really cares to take 

 the trouble to do a little thinking as he 

 reads and a little looking whenever he has 

 the opportunity. Full biographies of many 

 insects are given to show how exceedingly 

 interesting the life histories of our com- 

 mon insects are. A constant aim of the 

 author is to get the student to realize that 

 the life histories of the vast majority of 

 insects have never been fully worked out, 

 and that therein lies a rich field for anyone 

 who wants to contribute to the sum total 

 of human knowledge. Select almost any 

 insect you please, watch it carefully for a 

 season and you are sure to make new and 

 important discoveries. 



Another useful book is Arnold's "Sea- 

 Beach at Ebb-Tide," published by The Cen- 

 tury Co. It is a well made book of 490 pages, 

 with many text figures and photographic 

 illustrations of the multitude of animal and 

 plant forms one may find on the beach 

 at low tide. The book treats of the marine 

 algse, including the blue green, grass green, 

 olive green, brown, and red seaweeds, and, 

 among marine invertebrates, the sponges, 

 polyps, worms, molluscoids, echinoderms, 

 arthropods^ mollusks, and chordates. The 

 treatment is necessarily brief, so large is 

 the field covered, and there is not enough 

 natural history in the book. Neverthe- 

 less, it is a book which will prove use- 

 ful in the study of the myriads of animal 

 and plant forms of the sea beach. 



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