BUCCANEER. By Arthur 0. Cooke. (Country Life. 7s. 6d.)—The first
chapter of Mr. Cooke's book is devoted to the birth of Buccaneer, a little bull-calf, and the last one tells of the beast's tragic death. There is little plot, but the author is so successful in describing country days and country ways the thrill of the auction ring, the mysteries of sheep-dippi and bull-tending, and the idiosyncrasies of hens and shephe that we are never bored. His hero, David Lloyd, the breede of Buccaneer, is a pleasant person, who, though he loy animals, is not too much of a sentimentalist. The othe human characters are not so well drawn : there is, for instance a parson who speaks like this : " It's from no lack of hospi tality that I have left so wide a margin 'twixt the surface o the liquor and the cup's incurving brim ; it is that you may lose no single virtue that this good wine holds." Yet in spite of a few similarly jarring paragraphs, the book is a thoroughly good one and may be recommended to all who wish to recap• ture country scents and sounds.
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