Beasts : Thumbnail Studies in Pets. By Wardlaw Kennedy. (Macmillan
and Co. 4s. 6d.)—The " pets " are, for the most part, of a kind which few people observe very carefully. Among them we find a tortoise, a green frog, lizards, slow-worms, dormice, snakes, an armadillo, and a mongoose. One of Mr. Kennedy's most important observations is that these creatures do not always act as the books say they ought to act. The fact is that we are in the habit of attributing to the animals much more regularity of habit than is really to be found in them. Their deviations from rule are, considering the limits of their sphere of action, as great as man's. The last chapter is given to "Birds," and Mr. Kennedy takes occasion to quote some quite appalling figures from Mrs. Lemon (secretary to the Society for the Protection of Birds). At one sale she saw 228,289 bundles of Indian parrots' feathers and 116,490 of humming-birds. One thinks, as one sees these things, of Pope's couplet :— " Narelssa's nature, tolerably mild, To make a wash would hardly stew a child."
" Hardly !" but if the wash was very good for the complexion ? To be in the fashion stifles pity, even in good women. The mil. liner says, " Hemming-birds are worn," magic words whose spell it is impossible to resist. It is these things that made the cynic Baronet say," Thelast creature that man willcivilise is woman."—.- With this may be mentioned Tommy Smith's Animals, by E. Selons (3Iethuen and Co., 2s. 6d.) Tommy Smith is cruel to animals from want of thought, and his victims agree to teach hini better by showing him what interesting creatures they really are. Among his teachers are the snakes, the squirrels, the woodpecker, and their instructions are not a little interesting.
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