North America, into which no hunting party has ever penetrated, and where the frying pan's capacity of a few isolated prospectors has, so far, measured the destruction of game; countries where Moose, Caribou, and Antelope-Goat are still unfamiliar with the sight of white-skinned human beings."
The zoologist will find much worth reading and remembering in the chapters—amongst others—devoted to the Wapiti and the Antelope-Goat (Haplocerus montanus), though he will wish there were even more facts relating to the life-histories of these animals, and less discussion of record heads and antlers, which, after all, pertain more to the fame of the trophies of a hall than to the real treasure of a zoological museum. In fact, these monster heads seem to provoke too much emulation and apparent heart-burnings among their fortunate possessors, and the zoological reader may well skip the results of the measuring-tape and enjoy and profit by the beautiful illustrations of the heads themselves.
This book cannot be pronounced a genial production: there is too much criticism; scarcely any authority quoted seems free from error of commission or omission, so that we frequently—too frequently—are transported from the beauties of nature to the more confined area of the forum for the purpose of critical discussion.
The chapter devoted to "The Salmon of the Pacific Slope" contains much information apart from the correction of Dr. Günther. The reproduction of the instantaneous photograph of a Salmon leaping an eighteen-feet-high fall in Labrador is a charming contribution to art and zoology.
Mr. Lucas has found the subject for a much-needed book in British Entomology. The Dragonflies were certainly collected by some, and known to a few, but to the general British zoologist they were little understood, identified with difficulty, and hence—apart from specialists—received scant attention. Their life-histories can only be unravelled by skill and patience; for the
