The Wild Unmasked

Abstract

THE author has a gift of picturesque vision and delineation. There is no mistaking a strong imaginative power. We see this in the very first sketch of the interior of a wasp's nest and in the life-history of an intrusive parasitic beetle. The day's work of a sparrow-hawk, a water-vole's flitting, a fight between a big rat and a stoat, the adventures of an otter, a fight between a wild cat and a fox-such 'are some of the subjects of this romantic book. Prominence is given to the competitive side of the struggle for existence, which is one side of the truth, and many pages, like some in Nature's book, are lurid. We are not prepared to accept everything Mr. St. Mars infers, such as the shrew's death from a sudden noise, but the whole book expresses personal observation. What is first-class in the book is its vividness-it is not a study in still life, but in strenuous, palpitating endeavour. What is dubious is the extent to which the author pushes his anthropomorphism. With big-brained animals it seems a legitimate hypothesis, but in regard to sea-anemones it palls. What is more than dubious, in our judgment, is the occasional use of phraseology like "Mr. Passer,""Mrs. Hare,"and pet names for wild animals. They strike a false note. The book would have been finer if it had been less facetious.