58 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. | [Vor. XXXV. 
picture of animal life in the forests of equatorial Africa. The book is 
divided into short chapters, each devoted to a pair, or a community 
of animals, from the huge pachyderms to the smallest insects. The 
animals are made to discourse very naively to each other on the 
hardships and joys of their life, and to describe the special adapta- 
tions that fit them for it. There is no attempt at a connected story, 
or at any incidents which would not naturally result from the simple 
motives which influence the actions of animals, their care for their 
young, and their desire for food. The book is the story of the vicis- 
situdes of wild life, the periods of plenty alternating with those of 
want, — a life where only activity or ingenuity or patience can hope 
to maintain itself. "This is a refreshingly wholesome point of view in 
this age, when our views of animals are too much tinged by imagi- 
native sentiment. The constant repetition of much the same story, 
however, makes the three hundred and odd pages rather difficult 
reading, especially as they are never lightened by a ray of humor. 
Native names for the animals are early introduced and then used 
exclusively, so that the memory must bear a constantly increasing 
burden. When the *'nkengos" say that they are glad that they 
have found no traces of *nginas, nshiegos, mbouvés, and kooloo- 
kambas," we gain, despite the glossary, but a confused idea of the 
cause of their joy. The book will hardly arouse an interest in ani- 
mals in children who do not already possess it, but on the other 
hand it will teach them nothing that is not true, unless it be an 
exaggerated idea of the range of an animal's thought. The book 
cannot fail to win a valuable place in a school or juvenile library, and 
will teach those who have an interest in animals many details of the 
life history of African animals in particular, and a very just concep- 
tion of wild life as a whole. The illustrations are all good and some 
are excellent. R. H 
Mooswa and Others of the Boundaries.! — The author of Mooswa 
and Others of the Boundaries says in his introduction: * Perhaps this 
story is too simple, too light, too prolific of natural history, too some- 
thing or other — I don't know; I have but tried to tell the things 
that appeared very fascinating to me under the giant spruce and the 
white-barked poplars, with the dark-faced Indians and the open- 
handed white trappers sitting about a spirit-soothing camp-fire.”’ 
The suspicion here intimated that he has perhaps not succeeded in 
1 Fraser, W. A. Mooswa and Others of the Boundaries. 
2 
P Ne Illustrated by Arthur 
Heming. New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1900. pp- 
