13 FEBRUARY 1926, Page 21

• Rhine, when the Romans came there a thousand years

ago. His instinct and sometimes his intelligence is superhuman. A premonition of coming storms enables him to gather his . charges together long before the tempest. In war and : police work he is invaluable. In the Boston Museum of Fine Arts this reviewer has seen a dozen Alsatians trot round every room after dark in the methodical

• manner of caretakers, but with twice the keenness of nose and eye of any human caretaker and ten times a man's menace to thieves. The Alsatian is a book to be recommended : it is dedicated to Strongheart," the favourite film dog. Major Dawson's volume—which first appeared in 1922—has our enthusiastic approval, not only for its compre- , hensive character, but because of its wise and kind directions -for the training of the friend of man. This work has been well termed a "canine classic," but we could wish the fiction in it were replaced- by a fuller treatment of the British bulldog, who hardly achieves a mention. Sporting Terriers tells us some interesting facts about the history of" earth-dogs" and much about badger and otter and weasel hunting, together with some observations on ferrets, who were first tamed by the legions of Augustus-to deal with a plague of rabbits. As to rifting, When We know that the brown rat does damage to the extent of £40,000,000 a year, we can svmnathize with

even if we do not share, the eighth Duke of Beaufent's fond- ness for exterminating verznin.