Evening star., 1934-08-12
In the World of Books
BY SARAH BOwERMAN

lean Museum Of Natural History. and
beautifully illustrated with colored
plates and black and white drawings,
Is certain Of success. The Junior Lit
erary Guild has recognized this in
making it one of its selections. There
are 19 chapters, each devoted to a
different animal which the average
child has no opportunity to become
acquainted with in an intimate nrst-
hand way. They are animals of the
wilderness, animals which before long
may never be seen by any ole, for the
wilderness Is rapidly vanishing before
man and his farms and villages, DR..
James L. Clark of the American Mu-
scum Of Natural History, who writes
the foreword. says that every time he
returns to Africa the animal map"
has changed. where ] saw elephants.
stands q railroad station. Where
saw countless numbers of zebra and
hartebeest peacefully grazing, air.
planes now hover and settle TO leveled
and well-kept landing fields.
Throughout the world man is pushing
forward. Animals are moving back. +"
So the animals of today may be the
fossils of tomorrow and such book
as this vanishing wilderness" viii be
one of the valuable records.
The American bison was rapidly be-
coming almost extinct when the gov
ernments of the United States and
Canada began to collect him and pro-
tect him, and now there are 10000 oi
his kind In reserves in North America.
The Roman Emperor Octavian brought
back from Egypt hippopotamus and
paraded him through the streets OF
Rome as a feature of the imperial tri-
umph. This unwieldy animal is now
TO be found only in that part Of Af-
rica between the Nile cataracts and
the Limpopo River. The World War
nearly put an end to that beautiful
and bizarre animal, the giraffe. Be-
cause giraffes in fight tore down tele-
graph and telephone wires slung fol
war messages, orders were given by
both British and Germans to shoot
giraffes at sight and the whole species
was in danger of being annihilated;
but giraffes replenish their numbers
rapidly, and at the close of the wal
regulations were passed for their pro-
lection and now they are multiplying
The giraffe is a gentle, friendly ami
NAL of necessity pacifist, because his
only means of defense is kick.
Some of the other animals chosen
for this interesting wild-animal book
ar the otter, the kangaroo, the por-
cupine. the elephant, the armadillo
the lion, the chamois, the rhinoceros
the wolf, the camel, the walrus, the
bear and the reindeer. Information
about the animals is given in way tc
appeal to children from 8 years ole
on. Early mention Of the animals In
history, their relation to man and tt
other animals, their habitats. habit:
and methods Of keeping alive, and In
teresting anecdotes about them are al
| included in the book. Children may
see lion eating his evening mea
after kill, baby kangaroo leaning
out and nibbling grass from its moth.
er's pouch, Chinese men buying pow
dered rainoceros horn at drug store
as medicine, Grizzly Adams and hi,
troupe of bears padding through the
streets of San Francisco, the Emperor
Macmillan on chamois hunt and
Siberian reindeer owners bringing the
first herds to Alaska. The artist oi
vanishing wilderness" Vladimir Per-
filieff, is an Arctic and South Ameri-
can explorer.