Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/60

36 nor are the antennæ of a mosquito more adequately represented as a "beard." But a few pleasantries do not detract from the general accuracy of the book, which throughout runs the danger of being too well written and too entertaining. Nor does the author of 'The Woman who Did,' fear the lash of pseudo-scientific jargon in being termed a "neo-Lamarckian" for writing "Use brings structure."

The illustrations are excellent and instructive. The book has neither a preface nor index. The first is a very small matter, but the second is bad for both book and author if future reference is desired.

" following chapters were originally contributed to the 'Spectator,'" is the opening sentence of the preface to this book, and we are reminded of a remark made by Addison in the first paper to the older 'Spectator,' "I live in the world rather as a spectator of mankind, than as one of the species." Substitute "animal life" for "mankind," and we reach the plane of Mr. Cornish in this very interesting volume, the record of life-history being alone contemplated. The reprint of these weekly contributions in a complete form is very welcome, though we question whether they do not lose some of the original force as when they appeared singly, confined to one subject in moderate compass. Their reprint, however, clearly bears witness to what is now an undoubted fact, that the British reading public are at present thoroughly interested in the details of animal life.

Many facts which are supposed to be well known are here brought to light and emphasised. The Bactrian Camel "is a beast made to endure not heat but cold," as experienced Mongol herdsmen well know. The austere Goat is said, when city-kept in parts of New York, "to flourish on the paste-daubed paper of the advertisements which they nibble from the hoardings." As to the number of Cats in London, Mr. Cornish quotes a writer in the 'Daily Mail' for an estimate of 400,000. Mr. Hudson, however, in his 'Birds in London,' inclined to a much higher ratio in metropolitan feline population, believing in a probability