Abstract
THE name of Carl Hagenbeck has attained such world-wide celebrity that a volume from the pen of the great animal-dealer and animal-tamer must surely receive a hearty welcome from the reading-public. The publishers have therefore been well advised in bringing out an English edition of the original German work, although they might have taken care that it bore on the title-page some indication of its being from the pen of Mr. Hagenbeck himself. Whether the title is an exact translation of the German one we are unable to say, but if it be so, a slight modification would have been advisable, as it certainly does not read well in English. Neither, in spite of Dr. Mitchell's testimony as to the accuracy of their rendering, can we congratulate the translators on their style. “The menagerie owner Malforteiner” (p. 226) is not, for instance, elegant English; while a sentence on p. 153 conveys the astounding statement that Mr. Hagenbeck walked off with the fore-leg of a live elephant. On p. 157, as in many other places, we find “which” repeated in the first half of a very short sentence; and on p. 168 we find it stated that “this species is often captured, but in captivity they are very liable to die.” On p. 58 the word “lime,” in place of “bird-lime,” completely spoils a sentence.
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"Beasts and Men, being Carl Hagenbeck's Experiences for Half a Century among Wild Animals." An abridged translation by H. S. R. Elliot and A. G. Thacker, with an introduction by P. Chalmers Mitchell. Pp. xiii+299; illustrated. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1909.) Price 12s. 6d. net.
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L., R. The Capture and Training of Wild Animals 1 . Nature 82, 247–248 (1909). https://doi.org/10.1038/082247b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/082247b0