12 NOVEMBER 1921, Page 24

Mr. Masefield's spirited poem, Reynard the Fox, has been reprinted

on good paper (Heinemann. 5s. net). It is charmingly illustrated by Mr. O. D. Armour, whose four coloured plates and many line drawings have character and humour.-Mr. Archibald Thorburn has completed in a second stately volume his fine work on British Mammals (Longmans, £10 10s. the set), the first volume of which we warmly oommended a year ago. In this second volume ho deals with tho mouse, rat, vole, hare and rabbit, with deer and the wild white cattle, and with the cetaceans, including the dolphin and grampus as well as the various whales. Mr. Thorburn's brief notes on each species are good, but his coloured plates stand in a class apart. He knows and loves his subjects, and his finished draughtsmanship is pleasant to see.-Fabre's Book of Insects, retold from Mr, Teixeira de Mattes's translation of Fabre's memoirs by Mrs. Rodelph Stawell (Hodder and Stoughton, 21s. net), is an attractive book, embodying much of the curious detail that is the chief feature of Fabre's work. It is illustrated with a dozen of Mr. E. J. Detmold's vivid coloured drawings, almost machine- like in their hard brilliancy.-Another interesting book on natural history is Canon TheodOre Wood's Birds One Should Know : Beneficial and Mischievous (Gay and Hancock, 10s. 6d. net.) It is illustrated with many clever black-and-white draw- ings and with eight attractive coloured plates by Mr. Roland Green.