SOME INDIAN FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES.
Some Indian Friends and Acquaintances. By Lieut.-Colonel D. D. Cunningham, C.I.E., F.R.S. (John Murray. 12s.)--An Indian garden differs so widely from an English one that an account of the birds, beasts, and reptiles which may be found in it should interest all who have a taste for "natural history" of a not too scientific sort ; and many of Colonel Cunningham's "friends and acquaintances" will be recognised by those who have made a cold-weather trip to India. He writes with the knowledge of a keen naturalist who has had exceptional oppor- tunities during a period of nearly thirty years of observing the habits of the birds and animals he describes, and his book is a very complete account of the fauna of Calcutta and its neigh- bourhood. The birdsrange from the huge adjutant stork to the tiny honey-sucker; the mammals include monkeys, jackals, bats, squirrels, wild cats, and many others ; while under the head of reptiles come lizards, crocodiles, snakes, tortoises, and fish,—truly a wonderful population for a garden, but all well known to those who have lived in Lower Bengal. Colonel Cunningham is most enthusiastic about his fascinating friends, and his apology for not being able to describe their charm to others is scarcely needed by ola. Anglo-Indians, who will find the book a delightful reminder of the sights and sounds of their " compounds " in the East, and may learn, too, how little use they made of their eyes while out there, as many of Colonel Cunningham's friends will have escaped the notice of any but a close observer. The author might well have devoted more space to descriptions of the various birds, especially the more beautiful ones, and his reference to the startlingly brilliant colour-scheme of the copper- smith barbet as "crude vulgarity" will hardly be assented to by those who know the bird. His comparisons of size with English birds are somewhat vague, as, for example, when he tells us that the koll (Eudynamis honorata) is a good deal larger than a common cuckoo, and some pages later says that the crow-pheasant (Centropus sinensis) is considerably larger than the koll. His acquaintance with the fish of Bengal is decidedly that of a naturalist rather than a fisherman. Of the catla (Cat/a buchanani) he says that when hooked they do little save sulk and drag. This is hardly a fair account of the hardest fighter of all the "tank fish," whose first rush will try the best tackle and the nerve of the coolest angler, and whose cunning and wiliness are not second even to those of his cousin the carp. The illustrations unfortu- nately are very poor, and often incorrectly drawn, a fact which detracts considerably from the interest of an otherwise very attractive book.
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