56 
NATURE NOTES 
valve when the animal is beneath the water. Consequently, 
upon coming to the surface to breathe, he sends up a jet of 
visible breath into the air some ten or twelve feet. But a whale 
can no more force water through its spiracle or blow-hole, than 
you or I through our nostrils. 
Sticklebacks. 
Last summer, one morning when feeding my sticklebacks 
(their food consisting of worms), I had thrown a small worm 
into the aquarium in which I kept them. One end was imme- 
diately seized by one fish, and just as the fish was trying to 
swallow the worm another fish caught hold of the other end of 
the worm, and a fishy tug of war ensued, in which the weakest 
fish was compelled to give way, and the other fish gobbled up 
its prey directly. Another time the same thing happened 
between two great water newts. When they had both fairly 
got a grip on the worm, they kept jerking more into their 
mouths until they met in the middle of the worm, and then they 
kept on trying to eat more but the one would not let the other. 
They kept turning over and almost jumping clear of the water, 
until at last one was compelled to give way when the other 
swallowed it whole. [The worm or the newt ? — Ed. N.N.] 
By H. Keith Martin (aged ii). 
A junior member. 
REVIEWS AND EXCHANGES. 
Imect Life: Souvenirs of a Naturalist. By J. II. Fabre. Translated from ihe 
French by the Author of “ Mademoiselle Mori,” with a preface by David 
Sharp, M.A., F.R.S., and edited by F. Merrifield. With illustrations by 
M. Prendergast Parker. Macmillan and Co. Price 6s. 
The only reason that can have delayed the production of an English transla- 
tion of the Souvenirs Entomologiques of “ that inimitable observer ’’ Fabre — as 
Darwin styled him — must have been a feeling that most Englishmen of taste can 
at least read French and that a French naturalist — Fabre more especially — is in a 
great measure untranslateable. As Mr. Sharp says in his brief preface, “ If his 
words are literally translated, they scarcely make English ; if freely translated, 
the charm of his diction is too easily missed.” “ Fabre’s great merit,” Mr. Sharp 
most truly writes, “is his graphic portraiture of the living insect as it really is’' ; 
but another great charm of his work is the autobiography scattered through it. 
He stands in much the same relation to entomology that Gilbert White does to 
ornithology or Hugh Miller to geology. “Probably no one” — to quote the 
preface once more — “has ever written on this subject with equal brilliancy and 
vivacity.” So far as we can see, the present translation is eminently satisfactory. 
The volume deals mainly with the instincts of Hymenoptera ; but those who saw 
Mrs, Brighlwen’s living specimens of the .Sacred Beetle at our last Conversazione, 
will be glad to read an account of the species here. There are seven series of the 
original Souvenirs ; this volume is only a translation of the first. We hope 
translator and publishers will be encouraged by its reception to give us some 
more. It is essentially a naturalist-making work, an admir.able lesson in that 
outdoor nature-study which it is .so desirable to encourage. 
Our Irish Song Birds. By Rev. Charles William Benson. Second Edition. 
Dublin. Me.ssrs. Hodges, Figgis and Co. Price 5 s.net 
There is no |)relension to science or originality about this little book, the room 
