19 FEBRUARY 1910, Page 19

THE HUMAN BIRD.

[To THE EDITOR 07 THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The writer of the article in last week's Spectator on " The Human Bird," after speaking of the sense of the human in the bird and of the bird in mortals, goes on to say that " no one could write thus of dogs or cats." Has he read the " Lebensansichten des Kater Murr," which Hoffmann con- sidered his masterpiece? Its satire is brilliant, but never monstrous or appalling, whilst the author certainly gives his reader the human in the cat and the cat in mortals as no other writer has done.—I am, Sir, &c., G. D.