BIOLOGY FOR BEGINNERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 448, 23 January 1948, Page 13

BIOLOGY FOR BEGINNERS

STORIES OF BIRDS AND BEASTS. By Bryan O’Brien, with illustrations by Joan Smith. Paul’s Book Arcade, Hamilton. RICHARD BIRD AT SEA. By Mollie Miller an A. H. and A. W. Reed, WellingHESE two books were written for children in different age-groups and by authors with different aims. Mr. O’Brien’s aim, it is necessary to suppose, was entertainment only. Mrs. Atkinson’s was clearly instruction, as well as entertainment. In one case, therefore, the birds and beasts come from popular magazines and have nothing at all to do with New Zealand. In the other neither the stories nor the illustrations leave our own _ coasts. Every bird and bush, every fish, crab, and cockle-shell could be found in any New Zealand harbour, and all have been faithfully presented in line dnd colour. There can be no doubt at all that children (of the appropriate ages) will enjoy both, but Mr. O’Brien supplies one paragraph that must leave all his rivals speechless. A pellet from a shotgun strikes a snow-goose in the head, "injuring that part of the brain that gave her sight. Without her sight she could not go out to seek her food, and Wanda knew what that meant-she would starve to death." But was this godly goose down-hearted? Listen: "Most of her winged companions would have given way to a terrible despair, but the gentle bird thought of all the good things God had given her in the past. She had seen the sun rise in blazing magnificence over mountain and meadow; she had looked down on the beauty of the pine forests, and thrilled to the ecstasy of flight as she skimmed over hilltops and glided down to settle on river and lake. Wanda remembered all this and thanked God for His goodness. She would not complain now that these things had been taken from her. She would wait in quiet resignation until her pangs of hunger were soothed in a_ merciful death." ca ae a RT A I A RE AR OY