Abstract
THIS book is intended to help teachers and pupils in South Africa to get to know some of the common animals of every grade. It is clearly written and abundantly illustrated with simple “thumbnail ”sketches, many of which will enable the student to identify what he has seen. More critical sifting of the illustrations would have eliminated a number—e.g. that of Apus—which blur the total impression. It is almost impossible, except for men like Huxley, gifted with an unusual educational sense, to write a book useful for teachers and pupils alike, and though Mr. Skaife has done well, he sometimes falls between two stools-being sometimes too simple, sometimes a little difficult. There are also various statements requiring reconsideration, we think; thus we do not believe that the liver-fluke feeds partly on bile, and we are sure that a sea-urchin's teeth do not work up and down in their sheaths. But these are small matters; we mention them only as instances of a kind of defect that might easily be remedied, for the book as a whole is sound and careful, and it will be of great service. The chapters on insects, spiders, scorpions, and ticks are particularly good. We are interested to read that Peripatus may be fed on raw minced liver. “A female with twenty to thirty young ones clustering around her like chicks round a hen make a very pretty family party.” Two educational remarks seem called for: (1) It is very doubtful whether we are warranted in using a word like “ugly”for such animals as the fishing-frog or Galeodes—it seems like undoing one of the endeavours of Nature-study, which is to show that no wholesome free-living wild creature can be called common or unclean. (2) Is there not more than once—e.g. in regard to flat worms and gapes-worms-a distinct and deplorable tendency to bowdlerise the elementary facts of sex? Because we appreciate Mr. Skaife's good workmanship, we would ask him to reconsider these points. The book appears to be extraordinarily dear.
Animal Life in South Africa.
S. H.
Skaife
. With an introduction by Prof. F. Clarke. Pp. x + 281. (Cape Town: T. Maskew Miller; Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1920.) 15s. net.
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Animal Life in South Africa . Nature 107, 136 (1921). https://doi.org/10.1038/107136a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/107136a0