A BOOK OF BIRDS AND BEASTS.'
A Book of Birds and Beasts.. By Gambier Bolton, F.Z.S. (George Newnes: 5s. net.)—Perhaps the most interesting chapter in this entertaining book is that relating to the late Queen's animals. In this are to be foundaccounts, not only of the Queen's dogs, which wen always not scrupulously cared-for, but of the wild animals which were occasionally given to the Queen by foreign Kings and potentates, and were kept either at the Zoological Gardens or else at the Queen's private menagerie at Windsor. Very fascinating is the &Remit of the lion cub presented to the Queen by the Emperor of Sokoto. At first the animal was extremely tame, as he had been much petted by the sailors on shipboard. He used to be taken ,out in the evenings for walks in the Zoological Gardens on a collar and chain, just as if he were a big dog. One
day, however, he stuck his claws firmly into the grass and refused to come in, after the way of recalcitrant pugs in the park ; but with him the forcible taking home to bed was a difficult business. It required the efforts of three men to dislodge him from his point of vantage. After that he was never allowed to take a walk again. Mr. Gambier Bolton's fame as a photographer is well known. The book before us is full of beautiful photographs, the result of his camera, or rather of his camera and the skill which he has shown in catching the wild animals at exactly the moment most suitable to the photographer's art. In the lions he has been especially successful ; but perhaps the most amusing of the photographs here reproduced is that of the king penguins. We see two of these absurd creatures stand- ing up at attention, for all the world like the soldier in the Drill Book. Their eyes are looking to the front, their heels are together, and their whole air is that of the well-drilled soldier who has suddenly been called to attention and has placed himself in "the position of the soldier." The chapter on "Animal Oddities" is very curious. There is an excellent picture of a strange ores.- titre, a hybrid between a lion and a tiger. It cannot be said that the result is pleasant. The animal has an uncanny look both of the lion and tiger, but both seem to be spoilt in the making. Altogether the book is a very amusing one.
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