Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/529

Rh the progress of angling as an art has really been no greater than might have been expected, considering that amongst field sports it is the least expensive to indulge in, and consequently attracts the largest number of disciples. The more a subject is studied the more is art in connection with it likely to be developed.

Space will not permit us to notice in detail the dozen or more chapters which are devoted to as many different species of Biitish fresh-water fish. Suffice it to say that Mr. Manley seems to have made personal acquaintance with them all, and at times to have been very successful in luring them to his creel. His notes on each, although somewhat discursive, are pleasantly written, and his illustrations of fish, in the style of those in Major's edition of Walton, although not so good, add much to the attractiveness of a very readable volume.

gather from the author's Preface that this series of Sketches has been compiled with the view of affording general readers, and especially the young, some popular and yet trustworthy ideas regarding some of the most interesting groups of the animal world. The work may, in fact, be regarded as a Natural History textbook, adapted for use in Nature's school at large, and as a guide to the use of the observant powers, through the due exercise of which all true ideas of Nature are acquired.

To give the reader a notion of the varied contents of the book we cannot do better than quote the headings of the different chapters, which are as follow:—"A peep at Animalcules;" "Life in the Depths;" "Concerning Sea-Anemones;" "Sea Eggs;" "A Gossip about Crabs;" "Shells and their Inmates;" "Butterflies of the Sea;" "Cuttle-fish Lore;" "Odd Fishes and their Common-place Neighbours;" "Curiosities of Insect Life;" "Curious Animal Companionships;" "Animal Disguises and Transformations;" "Animal Armouries;" and "Footprints on the Sands of Time."