If we were asked to recommend a really amusing and
at the same time informative book which can be read, by a quick reader between tea-time and dinner, we should recommend Mr. Bmilenger's A Naturalist at the Dinner Table (Duckworth. 6s.). We learn all about oysters, of course, for Mr. Boulenger is Director of the Zoo Aquarium. The whistling oyster of Drury Lane, which -made a fortune for its proprietor, we had not heard of before, and we fancy it will become a fit com- panion in legend to the demon barber of Fleet Street. One of the reflections that occur to us in reading this book is the terrible cruelty that civilized . man, past and present, permits himself in ministering to his palate. We never knew before that Roman gentlemen ate dormice and that a glirarium was a common adjunct of the Roman household ; nor that the flying fox has delicate flesh, nor that the late Mr. Buckland "fairly ate his way through the Regent's Park menagerie— monkey, zebra, crocodile, ostrich, and many other creatures came within his knife and fork." Mr. Boulenger does not tempt us to extend our gastronomic enterprise beyond frogs' legs, but he does provide a most amusing commentary on the habits of men and women.
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