Abstract
WE cannot say much in favour of the first of these two works. The engravings are good, but the subjects chosen scarcely justify the care which has been taken in their execution. For these subjects are nearly all chosen for the sake of a comical or sensational effect, without any reference to utility as illustrating zoological facts or principles. And the essentially unscientific spirit which has led to the choice of the “thirty-six illustrations,” is no less apparent throughout the letter-press. We are always ready to welcome any attempt at popularising zoology, more especially when the writer has any first-hand “contributions to the study of natural history” to supply; but surely such study admits of being made sufficiently interesting in itself, without the need of lame attempts at a kind of pleasantry, which in being always forced and never witty, must necessarily become irksome even to the least intelligent of unintelligent readers. We are the more disposed to regret the author's mistake in adopting this artificial style, because in his short preface, where it is not adopted, he shows that he is able to write with marked ability.
Zoological Sketches.
A Contribution to the Out-door Study of Natural History. By Felix L. Oswald. With Thirty-six Illustrations by Hermann Faber. (London: W. H. Allen and Co., 1883.)
Zoological Notes on the Structure, Affinities, Habits, and Mental Faculties of Wild and Domestic Animals; with Anecdotes concerning and Adventures among them; and some Account of their Fossil Representatives.
By Arthur Nicols, F.G.S., F.R.G.S. Illustrated by J. W. Wood and F. Babbage. (London: L. Upcott Gill, 1883.)
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ROMANES, G. Zoological Sketches Zoological Notes on the Structure, Affinities, Habits, and Mental Faculties of Wild and Domestic Animals; with Anecdotes concerning and Adventures among them; and some Account of their Fossil Representatives . Nature 27, 333–335 (1883). https://doi.org/10.1038/027333a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/027333a0
