New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-11-19
NEW N4TURE BOOKS.
Wander1ngs Afeld and Friendships
uith Beast and Bird.

FAR AND NEAR, BY John Burroughs, 16mo. PIP
FERGY, THE GUIDE. and His Moral and In
structive Lies about Beasts, Birds and Fishes
BY H. S. Garfield, illustrated. l2mo PIP. S42
ITTJwAKB OF The GREAT Iist Ellis Il am by
PIP. 22l. The Grafton Press.
M Sp and oa s9Hth R Na 60 '0
OUR FRIEND. THE DOG. BY, Maurice Maeter-
linck Illustrated leuno Dodd. Mead & Co:
oUINTETTE OF GRAYCOATS. BY Ef1e Big
nell. Illustrated. l6mo PIP. go The Baker &
Taylor Company
The papers which Mr.. Burroughs has included
in Far and Near" range from reprint OF his
Alaska journal to an entertaining account OF
month in Jamaica Between these two records
are some engaging chapters on the wild life
observed by the author round his woodland nook
above the Hudson. The varied character of the
book is one of its many virtues. The pictures
in words Of iceberg and glacier are singularLy
vivid. and SO are those of the Alaskan meadows
masses of glorious flower colors blooming in the
bed of moss and grass above a lower bed OF
Ice that never melts We come upon the Es-
quimaus in the skin costumes that give them the
look Of big dolls stuffed with bran or sawdust;
we wander through their villages. where the
houses built of whale ribs, walled about
with turf, and where the seal oil is stored in
deep, half covered pits in the earth. 1t is not
easy to maintain existence in Alaskan solitudes
in Jamaica, the land OF bananas and mangoes,
nobody need ever go hungry. Life is a holiday
there, the author tells u.s. in the mango season.
nobody will work while ripe mangoes are wait
ing for the taking everywhere.
Mr.. Henry Ferguson. otherwise Fergy the
Guide, is introduced accompanying his Wild
wood service with ingenious and respondent
Lies. Lies as to the intellectual and sentimental
,1.1 III
own amazing part in such doings. pour from the
lips of Fergy as he fries fish over the campfire
or keeps the boat in some convenient harbor
while his employer casts for bass. The man who
had hired him for 81 day might intimate that
he'd scorn to catch fish by having them talked
to death-Fergy, all the same talks on in the
"unfettered, expressive tongue of the wilderness.
the brchbark shack and the logging camp"
Most of his stories have a Moral. and we may
mention particularly improving that Of the
flying squirrel whose overmuch gentlity was
fatal. and that of the wildcat whose undue indul-
gence in cheese led to most painful consequences
The story Of the three woodchucks who were
trained by Fergy into mouth-organ band is
funny enough to disarm the resentment of any
modern naturalist who feels that his tales OF
animal cleVerness are satirized in these narra-
tives.
~ illSIi anu NOILeII WHO IldLlldlL IIIdl
mails have rights"-that is the significant dedi-
cation of Mr. c. F. Stansbury's charming little
book. His "reminiscences Of the creatures he has
succored and won to friendship are calculated to
persuade all his readers into the ranks of those
to whom that dedication is addressed He does
not attribute to his beasts and birds any aston
fishing evidences of intellect, but he interprets
their lives and their instincts with such tender
ness and humor that they seem to gain gen
uine personality. We doubt that any woman
who would read intelligently the story G. the
pcor kittiwake could a bird wing on her
headgear without a pang. The story Of the
me gpie who took maps in bed with his friend
with the sheet pulled UP to his bill is not as
credible. it must be acknowledged. as that of
Julius Caesar. the cat. and the tale of the storks
as piece Of fiction. is out of place among
sketches Of actual life The two French snails
MN. de Mordeaux and de Bourgogne; Silas
Wegg, the small chick with a peg leg and
Bubbles. the cockatoo furnish forth portraits as
quantity amusing as they slight.
Mr.. Torrey's notes OF a bird gazer are reprinted
from various periodicals and are certainly worth
preservation in book form. In rambles about the
mountains Of New-Hampshire. about the Flor
ida Everglades or in the desert region of Texas
and Arizona he has found at every step winged
things as fascinating to read about as to see
One can but envy him that pretty sight of the
pair Of hooking birds silently dancing together
as in formal ceremonial. and also the sight Of
that other bird which filed him with "a raptur-
Gus delight in pure color" It was an Arizona
pyre -nuloxia. beauty dressed "in the most ex-
qusite shade of gray, with plentiful spilling of
an equally exquisite rose color over its under
parts. It's bright orange bill was surrounded at
the base by a double ring of black and rose
and on its head was most distinguished look
ing divided crest tipped with rose color of a
deeper shade. 1t loneliness to wonder at"
The author offers now and then some pertinent
bit of observation of humans" as well as of
birds. Here is a characteristic glimpse of shanty
life in the Florida Everglades:
white man upon the rude piazza, and an
other man and boy stood near.
Are you going to work today" asked the boy
No. was the answer quick and pithy.
pect to hear the philosophy of Incidence sue
years.
NJ Maeterlinck's philosophical consideration Of
our friend. the dog. is too obvious TO be enter
tanning. Where he exhibits any originality is in
statements which we believe to be untrue No
man who has had years of faithful friendship
with intelligent and loving horse can read
without Indignation the authors reference to
the uncertain and craven horse who responds
only TO pain and is attached to nothing" There
are. moreover. countless instances of real af-
lection the part OF birds and the smaller
beasts, which make absurd his declaratio thar
only the dog loves man.
Mrs. Bignelis biography OF her robins Mr.
Chirpes and Miss Jenny. was not one 10 be for
gotten. and the remembrance of its pages leads
10 the prompt perusal OF her volume
Ihoush mat story OF two most lovable birds is