286 
[May, 
Analyses of Books. 
faCt that true insectivorous birds were destroyed or scared away 
by the clumsy methods used in the war against the sparrow, n 
a later part of his work Mr. King expresses an opinion much 
more in harmony with faCts. He writes : — “ I believe it (the 
English sparrow) to be a bird for which we have no present need, 
and that it is positively in the way of a score of more useful 
species. The bird has very few of those qualifications, indeed, 
which are combined in good inseCt-destroyers, while it has many 
traits which are positively vicious. One chipping sparrow ( Spi - 
zella domestica ) is worth two score of these imported gamins.. 
The author shows further that a bird may serve men by preying 
upon slugs and snails. These mollusks are, indeed, much less 
numerous and destructive in America than in the moister climates 
of Western Europe. _ . • 
The mischief done by birds is next considered. It is shown 
that a bird is harmful if it preys upon earthworms, when it 
destroys carnivorous inseCts, spiders and myriapods, and the 
parasites of noxious species. Here we find ourselves in a sin- 
gular dilemma. The very same species which serve us aie also 
ready to injure us. Each species fights for its own hand. There 
is scarcely an inseCt-eater which entirely abjures fruits and the 
buds of trees, and when preying upon inseCts it devours indis- 
criminately the zoophagous and the phytophagous. This prin- 
ciple pervades the entire animal world. The mole devours the 
larvae of the useful Carabus as eagerly as those of the destructive 
cockchafer or daddy-longlegs. The weasel assassinates the mole 
as readily as the field-mouse. 
The number of yet unsolved questions raised by Mr. King is 
surprising, and many observers must spend years in patient 
labour before half of them can be solved, even for the United 
States. We should hope that his treatise will be republished as 
an independent work ; there are few parts of the world where it 
would not be serviceable. We could wish that similar researches 
might be undertaken in India, Australia and South Africa, and 
the West Indies. 
Selections from Previous Works , with Remarks on Mr. G. J. 
Romanes's “ Mental Evolution in Animals," and a Psalm of 
Montreal. By Samuel Butler. London : Triibner and Co. 
We have here selections from several of the author’s former 
works, — from “ Erewhon” from the “ Fair Haven,” from “ Life 
and Habit,” from “ Evolution, Old and New,” and from 
“ Unconscious Memory.” There are also remarks on “ Mental 
