18 MAY 1895, Page 24

A Year of Sport and Natural History. Edited by Oswald

Craw- fwd. Illustrated. (Chapman and Hall.)—This is a collection of papers lately published in Black and White, and now issued together in a large volume, beautifully illustrated by Messrs. Frank Feller, Bryan Hook, Cecil Aldin, Stanley Berkeley, G. E. Lodge, and other well-known artists. These illustrations are works of art, in many cases little, if at all, inferior to the best animal and bird drawings of J. Wolff. "The Wild Red-deer Shaking down Apples in an Exmoor Orchard," by Stanley Berkeley; " Rabbit Hawking," by G. E. Lodge ; "Woodcocks Feeding," by Bryan Hook ; and " Tweed Salmon - fishing," by Frank Feller, are among the most successful. That the letterpress is not of equal merit is mainly due to the neces- sity for compression in a volume which contains forty five short articles on subjects, many of which have recently been treated fully in works like those in the " Badminton" and " Fur and Feathers " series. Among the best of these short papers are Mr. Oswald Crawfurd's remarks on rabbit-shooting, Mr. Teget- meier's on the nests of moor-birds, and two well-written papers on "Hunting the Wild Red-deer," by Mr. H. S. Pearse, and on " Char-fishing," by Mr. H. A. Bryden. Many of the other articles would be the better for less generalisation, and a less frequent use of the " historic present" in writing descriptions of particular experiences. But the book draws attention in a pleasant form to the varied kinds of sport and subjects for the naturalist which may be found in every season of the year in England, and is useful as a reminder that almost every locality provides amuse- ment of this kind, sometimes in unexpected forms,—see, for instance, Mr. Sach's article on " Sea-fishing from Piers," and the chapter on " Bass-fishing," by Mr. G. A. Thring.