(1) Nature's Story of the Year (2) Creatures of the Night (3) The Life Story of a Fox (4) The Romance of Animal Arts and Crafts (5) Our School Out of Doors

Abstract

(1) MR. WITCHELL is great as an observer. He has studied the ways of sticklebacks. With still more patience and insight he has watched the courtship of willow-wrens and of skylarks. He has much to say about the habits of swifts that is worth reading. He is at his best when he is writing about birds, though such an affectionate observer has, of course, the defect of his virtue. He sympathises so keenly with his favourites that he reads into their lives a good deal which may or may not be there. They are to him beings full of almost human thoughts and passions. But whether we go along with him in his inferences or not, he makes it plain that there is a great deal in nature that most of us fail to notice. We must regret that he feels so much contempt for comparative anatomy and classification, things of some importance, though Mr. Witchell is not alive to it. But chiefly we must regret that our author sometimes aims without success at a very high-flown style of writing. On p. 76 is a notable example. In the first chapter he is a philosopher rather than an observer, and for this rôle he is not so well qualified. But if his readers go on with the book they will find themselves rewarded.

(1) Nature's Story of the Year.

By C. A. Witchell. Pp. xii + 276. (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1906.) Price 2s.

(2) Creatures of the Night.

By A. W. Rees. Pp. xix + 448. (London: John Murray, 1905.) Price 6s. net.

(3) The Life Story of a Fox.

By J. C. Tregarthen. Pp. viii + 224. (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1906.) Price 6s.

(4) The Romance of Animal Arts and Crafts.

By Dr. H. Coupin John Lea. Pp. 356. (London: Seeley and Co., Ltd., 1907.) Price 5s.

(5) Our School Out of Doors.

By the Hon. M. Cordelia Leigh. Pp. xii + 141. (London: T. Fisher Unwin.) Price 2s.