Our Brothers the Beasts

Tiger and Other Game. By Col. A. E. Stewart. (Lougmans. 16s.)

Tin: essays on various aspects of the question of man's inhu- manity to beasts, which Mr. Bell has* reprinted from the Anima's' Friend, raise many difficult questions.. Some of us will disagree with the author about hunting. Broadly speaking, our view is that to tilt at windmills when there are so many obvious cruelties and so many immediately practicable reforms is bad policy if our object be to secure better treatment for animals as soon as possible. Genuine reforms generally come gradually and are the result always of education rather then compulsion. Hunting and shooting may change and adapt thernselvel, for nothing in the world should remain tin.. changeable. But to go too far in advance of public opinion is not to lead it, but rather to lose all touch. AS the author wisely observes, a man whose life has been passed near kennel and saddle:roOm " cannot possibly take the same view of blood Sports as the town-bred moralist, who has never know the excitement of riding to hdtinds." We may observe signs of a change-of opinion already : many good sportsmen abhor the slaughter of pigeons and the cruelties of coursing. The day is not far-distant perhaps when* clay-pigeon-traps, the mechani- cal hare and the-drag will Supply painlessly the same sport-- or at any rate a not 'too 'pare 'similitude—as that which now clemaniValolloriiindedit life. ' "

Horse Racing : a cruel sport " is a section of Mr. Bell's k we definitely disagree with. A horse enjoys pitting its Mess against its kind. It is infinitely happier " paNkring in valley and rejoicing in its strength" than drawing a chefs cart. " What are the rights of animals ? " Mr. Bell

: his answer is that they have the rights of life and liberty. t it is just this precious. gift of life that we are giving to the rse, the dog, the fox and the pheasant, in return for a contri- tion to our comfort or amusement. We can love the horse d dog, not the others, and the horse and dog may reasonably assumed to enjoy working for us, even at the cost of some comfort to themselves. The use of the whip at a " finish not cruel as coursing is cruel. A thoroughbred horse in the endid exercise of his powers hardly feels the lash, and in case a good jockey will rarely give him more than a couple cuts.

If we adopt an inflexible attitude towards sport we land in

rental cul-de-sac such as is loved by theorists : we should se to eat meat, walk on shoe-leather, or even breathe. Or should breathe only through gauze, as do the Joins, who ry also a pill-box for fleas, liberating them later in some venient spot to prey on others not so devout. This is not 'cal. Logically, breathing, eating and drinking are mild us of murder with extenuating circumstances, but cou- nted of malice prepense.

If we rely on common sense we shall see that while there are ty debatable points in our treatment of animals, we do un- ubtedly inflict wrongs on sub-human creatures which -could righted quickly if we read and pondered over books such as s. Do we realize a tithe of the horrors perpetrated for our milli or adornment ? To quote Mr. Edwin Markham :- " Have you seen these creatures die While the bleeding hours go by— These poor mothers in the wood Robbed of joy and motherhood ? Do you, when at night you kneel See them in their traps of steel ? Do you hear their dying cries When the crows pick out their eyes I Women, are the furs you wear Worth the hell of this despair ? "

rely, also, we can all agree that circus performances of wild imals such as lions are silly and degrading to all concerned?

d that caging birds and keeping dogs on leash and lead like chaining a child in its most sportive years," as Ouida 1) are generally unnecessary and idiotic cruelties.

We find again some trenchant remarks on the " sportsman- p of big-game shooting to-day, with its flashlight, telescopic its, high velocity rifles, and soft-nosed bullets. Certainly is a poor business to slaughter beautiful beasts from the mparative safety of a machan, especially when we remember at real sport there is in taking motion pictures of wild life. vane who has seen Mr. Dugmore's African film must feel at that is an achievement infinitely superior to the collection the glassy-eyed, moulting trophies that adorn so many the halls of England. The fact is, as Miss Pitt says in her ruing book, " man is still the most murderous creature T." Let us hope we shall change our ways. Mr. Bell Inds us about many things which are wrong in our attitude wards animals, and if we do not agree with all he says, we most cordially commend his book to the attention of our dens.

Animal Mind is a work of a very different order to that of Bell. Miss Pitt claims only that it is " a collection notes," but it is much more. The author has a profound

leg for Nature and exceptional, literaryability.

" I firmly .believe,7 says Miss Pitt, " that the mind of Homo Picas differs in degree, but not in kind, from that- Of his low-inhabitants in the world." We do not doubt this, and e agree with the author thafanalogous impulses may be and in the mouse who devours her young under influence of r and the unhappy girl who murders her unwanted baby. Of instinct, migration, the " broken-wing" trick, flock and I'd movements and the psychology, of- horses Miss Pitt has 1'01 of interest to say. -What has been said .above. as to a use enjoying racing is only; in part confirmed by the author. It is obvious that horses enjoy galloping- in company, for they fundamentally herd animals, and yielding.to the ,intra-ktr. go with the crowd must be highly exeiting.amipleasom*:;

but that is a different thing from understanding the race as we see it.". -

We have' space only for a single story out of a hundred. It deals with one of Miss Pitt's most attractive friends :— " Otters, though normally the most jovial and light-hearted of creatures, can and do lose their tempers at times. Once, and only once, did Moses show me temper. - She had been playing on a pool and I wanted to catch her and take her in, and was following her round the banks in an endeavour to pick her up. I made a grab at her tail, but missed it as she dodged in the water. To my surprise, instead of swimming away, she came back, climbed up the bank, and with that sharp cry, Quack ! ' which denotes great annoyance, made in her turn to grab at me ! The measure of her anger can ho gauged by the fact that she was perfectly indifferent to being handled and was accustomed to be seized by any and every part of her body. it was sheer temper at being interfered with when engaged in frog-hunting, and in her case was a unique display of tern per."

This is one of the most fascinating books on animals that has appeared in recent years.

Colonel Stewart's able but unpretentious cede mecum for

shikaris underlines for us the peculiar insensitiveness of the big game hunter, even when he is a real sportsman, as the author obviously is. We find, for instance, the following observations about dealing with a wounded tiger : " After posting the listeners do nothing for an hour. Sit down, light a cigarette and have a drink from your thermos. The one hour's wait will allow the tiger to stiffen up or perhaps to die." Colonel Stewart knows of what he writes. His hook is excel- lently illustrated from amateur photographs—rather a rare feature in books of this kind— and there is some good advice on the caution to be observed in shooting black buck on the teeming plains of India. With regard to peacock, he writes that " in a few jungles you may find them sacred. Perhaps this is so in Central India, but in the United Provinces these beautiful birds are everywhere reverenced and no one shouid shoot one within a mile of a village, for they are not only sacred but are generally considered as pets. A reviewer must not allow prejudice to interfere with judgment : as a treatise on how to kill big game in India this is as good and practical a book as can be found.