Animals of Today : their Life and Conversation. By C.
J. Cornish. (Seeley and Co.)—Mr. Cornish is so well known as a writer on natural history and kindred subjects, that a new volume from him hardly needs our recommendation. Our readers will recognise many of the articles in the present volume, which originally appeared in the columns of the Spectator. Every lover of animals will find entertainment and information in this book, and no one can complain that the forty essays which it contains are lacking in variety. From reindt...,r and snow-camels for Klondike, we pass to the life of goats in cities and the cats about town, from the speed of carrier-pigeons to the conditions of animals in menageries, from crocodile-shooting to the prospects of re-establishing the great bustard on Salisbury Plain. Mr. Cornish writes like one who delights in observing the ways of beasts and birds in their daily life and under varying circum- stances ; he writes, also, with the accuracy of a scientific naturalist, the lack of which characterises much of the trash which is written about animals. He does not attempt to prove that beasts are more intelligent than human beings ; he does not impute to them motives which exist only in the mind of the observer; and he does not seek the rational mind of man where the instinct of the brute is to be found. For these reasons his writings are all the more interesting : at least, to the reader who prefers accuracy to sentiment. The book is illustrated by a 'cumber of very excellent photographs of animals, wild and tame, by Mr. Charles Reid.
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