Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/62

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36
THE ZOOLOGIST

are passed over by the ordinary collector; so that it is still probable for the present enumeration to be extended. If instructions were given for these small birds to be sent home in spirit much more would be known about them; for the tired waggon-traveller to keep awake and skin these small creatures is a thing to be hoped for rather than expected. In all orders, the smaller the species the more difficult to acquire—at least, in South Africa, where many a good sportsman, both Boer and Briton, will cheerfully take the trouble to procure you an animal of size, but will resent being asked to collect and skin Warblers.

We have heard of pianos accompanying our military columns to help while away the monotonous expeditions over a lonely veld. We would propose that this series of faunistic books should be supplied to every mess-room, whether peripatetic or otherwise. They are volumes that will be appreciated by every naturalist in our South African colonies, and especially by our military men who are now traversing the whole of a region yet somewhat imperfectly known to ornithologists.


Photography for Naturalists. By Douglas English. Iliffe & Sons, Limited.

Nature is ever seeking to be revealed. Sometimes she appears in the verse of Wordsworth, on another occasion in the magic prose of Ruskin, while painters have even often attempted to improve her on the inspiration of successive schools of art. Among naturalists a higher criticism is arising, a desire to see her portrayed as she is, or as she is to our perceptions. Photography is now invoked by the zoologist rather than the handwork of the artist, and the results, great as they are now, exhibit a still greater potentiality in the future. The present volume is designed as a means to that end, though it largely advocates a photography of natural objects "by control"—in other words, to photograph animals in captivity after making the artificial surroundings to look as natural as possible. This we consider a retrograde step, and one photo of an animal at large, and unaware of the attentions of the camera enthusiast, must surely