FUR, FEATHER, AND FIN.* WE have chosen this title because
each of the nine volumes we propose to notice deals with beasts, birds, or fishes from the point of view of the naturalist or the sportsman. Messrs. Longmans must forgive us for taking a title they have already adopted. The appearance of a new volume in their excellent "Fur, Feather, and Fin Series" is always interesting ; and though this book on The Fox does not quite come up to the standard of certain of its predecessors, every one who cares about fox-hunting should read it. One might think that there was nothing new to be written about the fox. Mr. T. F. Dale has not found very much to say that we did not know before, but he writes pleasantly. Sometimes he deals too much in generalities, but when he gives us some facts drawn from his own wide experience of hunting, in the shires, in the rougher countries, and in India, he never fails to he interesting, The chapter dealing with India is entitled "Cousin Jack "— that is, the jackal—and is, we think, rather out of place in a monograph on the fox, although in itself well worth reading, The writing of this volume has been entrusted to a single author. We did not, in a volume about the fox, expect Mr.
• (1) The For By Thomas F. Dale. With 8 Illristratns by A. Thorburn and G. D. Giles. "Fur, Feather, and Fin Series." London : Longmans and Co. [58.]—(2) Practical Hints for Hunting Novices. By Charles Richardson (" Shotley "). London : Horace Cox. [8s. 6d. net.1—(3) Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. By E. S. Roscoe. Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged. With 8 Illustrations. London George A. Horton.—(4) Fishing in Ireland ; (5) Fishing in Scotland and the Home Counties. By Philip Geen. Second Impressions. Dlustrated. London T. Fisher Unwin, 13s. 6d. net each.]—(6) Life in the Open. By Charles Frederick Holder. Illustrated. London : G. P. Putnam's Sons. [15e. net.1—(7) Bombay Ducks. By Douglas Dewar, F.Z.S., LC.S. With Numerous Illustrations from Photographs of Living Birds by Captain F. D. S. Fayrer, I.M.S. London : John Lane. 1168. not.)—(8) Recollections of a Bison and Tiger Hunter. By "Felix." London : J. M. Dent and Co. Ds. 6d.1—(9) A. Handbook of British Inland Birds. By Anthony Collett. With Coloured and Outline Plates of Eggs by Eric Parker. London : Macmillan and Co. Lea...1
Alexander Innes Shand's learned disquisition on cookery ; but it would, we think, have been better had the natural history of the fox been entrusted to a zoologist, leaving Mr. Dale to write on the hunting and the habits of the beast with which he is so well acquainted. The chapter on bow to preserve foxes contains some gonna advice, though in truth there is little that need be done, when coverts have been provided. except leave the foxes alone and prevent the gamekeepers shooting, trapping, and poisoning them. Mr. Dale declares that he knows a gone in the West Somerset country which is so well eared for by the owner of the farm that it has been drawn forty times in succession and a fox found every time. Artificial coverts and earths are treated of in a chapter on the home and haunts of the fox. Tame foxes ; the stamping out of mange, which is a disease about which fox-hunters have the most strange notions ; and the fox in fable and literature, form the subject of other portions of the book. Let us now come to the hunting, which is after all the most absorbing topic. Here Mr. Dale is thoroughly at home, and all that he says is to the point. The cunning of the hunted fox supplies numberless anecdotes, but it is, to tell the truth, very limited. Why cannot a fox who has been drawn over lie quiet ? Every one who hunts must have noticed how often there is a holloa back in the wood after the huntsman has blown out. The chapter on the mind of the fox is full of suggestions. In writing of the usual habits of the fox our author declares that "as a rule from about 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. are the hours between which he is abroad." This, we think, is much too short a time. In the dark winter days foxes come out much earlier, and do not return to their earth or the covert until 7 or 8 a.m. Mr. Dale is bold enough to enter into a discussion on the rights and wrongs of fox-hunting and the good it does.. Nothing would induce us to follow him into this vast subject, even though some of his arguments seem to us unsound. Mr. Thorburn's illus- trations are as excellent as usual ; and Mr. G. D. Giles's picture of a fox-chase in full cry gives an admirable idea of Leicestershire. But where is the body of the pack ? The huntsman has only four couple on.
In connexion with fox-hunting we may recommend Practical Hints for Hunting Novices, which contains a deal of informa- tion, not only on the duties of followers of hounds, but also on buying and hiring horses. It is very difficult to write a book on etiquette, dress, and deportment, whether in the hunting-field, in the ballroom, or at the marriage ceremony, and more easy still to make fun of it when it is written. Mr. Charles Richardson's articles, republished from the Field, are sound and reliable in all the advice they offer.
We now leave hunting and turn to three books on fishing. We do not wonder that a second edition of Mr. E. S. Roscoe's little book, Rambles with a Fishing-Rod, has been demanded. It is one of the pleasantest books on fishing that we have come across for some time. Mr. Roscoe knows how to describe a day's fishing, the appearance of the water, and the excitement of catching even a small trout, in such a manner as to set the angler's blood tingling. Not every writer on angling has this power; but Mr. Roscoe makes the fisherman who is tied to London fret to put up his rod and start whisk- ing his fly backwards and forwards so that it drops lightly where the rising trout is waiting. There is much useful advice on fishing tours abroad, and the reader who wants information has the benefit of Mr. Roscoe's experience in the Tyrol, the Black Forest, Bavaria, and Normandy. About half-a-dozen new chapters have been added. Some of these have appeared in the Field. The author is too modest in thinking that his sketches, written in leisure evenings on the spot, "can pretend to have little literary merit."
It is unnecessary to introduce Mr. Philip Geen to some at any rate of our readers. He is well known, at least to Londoners, as having been for nearly thirty years president of the Anglers' Association. His book—which appeared not long ago under the title "What I Have Seen While Fishing, and How I Have Caught My Fish "--is now in a new edition, divided into two separate volumes, which deal with Fishing in. Ireland and Fishing in Scotland and the Home Counties respectively. There are a good many pages in the volume on Irish fishing that are not about fishing, or only remotely con- nected with the sport. But the book contains a great deal of information that may be useful; and Ireland is still a country where the angler of moderate means who wants brown trout, white trout, and salmon can find fishing to suit his purse. He may, in fact, expect there as good sport as can be wished for. Mr. Geen's portrait at the beginning of the book tells us that he must be one of the most good-natured of men. The freedom with which he gives brother-anglers information that most men would keep to themselves, and recommends inns where good fishing can be had at little cost, confirms this view. The Scotch volume deals chiefly with the river Lyon. It is a splendid salmon river in spring, though most of Mr. Geen's salmon were caught with spinning bait, and it may be fished by the guests at hotels. The Thames, also, is open to the very humblest angler, and Mr. Geen's knowledge of the swims in that river is extraordinary. From salmon he passes to barbel and gudgeon, and writes with equal vivacity and humour of every branch of angling. The two volumes are illustrated with a great number of photographs, mostly of lochs and rivers. They, too, make the angler's heart beat. Though Mr. Geen, like Mr. Roscoe, makes the fisherman's blood tingle, his writing has less literary charm than the volume we noticed above. Perhaps it is not very difficult to make the angler's blood tingle.
Be this as it may, we defy any fisherman to look at the photographs of the monsters that may be caught with rod and line on the coast of California without emotion. Mr. Holder's book, Life in the Open, does not confine itself to fishing. It is an account of sport of all kinds with rod, gun, horse, and hound in Southern California. He writes of hunting and coursing hares, lynxes, foxes, and coyotes ; of shooting the big-horn sheep, the puma or mountain lion, the wild goat, and the quail. The fish include the black sea-base, which runs over three hundred pounds, the tuna, also a monster, the weak- fish, which ranges from fifty to a hundred pounds, besides such lesser fry as amber-fish or yellowtail, albacore or bonito. Though the American language occasionally grates on English ears, Mr. Holder's book is excellently written, and he has a fine enthusiasm for California. We have never read anything that gave so attractive a description of any country. Climate, scenery, vegetation, fauna, sea-coast, and mountains combine to produce perfection. There is poetry, too, about the old Spanish names, such as Los Angeles ; and the ruins of the old Spanish mission houses and churches still exist along El Camino Real. The numerous photographs of places and sporting scenes are unusually well reproduced. We regret that space does not allow us to give a better idea of a very interesting book which English sportsmen 'cannot fail to enjoy, even if they only look at the illustrations.
It is a far my from California to Bombay, and we find our- selves transported to a very different world. The author of Bombay Ducks, a contemplative, humorous Anglo-Indian, is very unlike Mr. Holder, the American sportsman, in many ways. But Mr. Douglas Dewar's book is also excellent, except for the title, which, in spite of the explanations in the preface, seems to us pointless and misleading. He calls it an account of some of the everyday birds and beasts found in "a naturalist's Eldorado." The articles are reprinted from various Indian newspapers, and having derived much pleasure from the book, we do not hesitate to say that they were well worth saving from oblivion. Mr. Dewar is a naturalist and a good observer. The birds he writes of are little known to most of us in England, and his account of their habits is often amusing. A feature of the book is the photographs of birds by Captain Fayrer. They are most remarkable, and quite unlike the usual wretched snapshot and blurred repro- ductions with which too many naturalists' books are nowadays illustrated. The sharp lights and shades, the size of each individual bird, and the unglazed and toned paper give a Japanese effect which is quite unusual, and well worthy of imitation. We are sorry that nothing in the preface tells us of the methods by which Captain Fayrer obtained these admirable results.
We may notice shortly yet another book about India. The sportsman who is the author of Recollections of a Bison- and Tiger Hunter is pleased to remain anonymous under the signature of "Felix." But as he gives us his portrait, and tells us that during his twenty-six years' sojourn in the East he served in no fewer than twelve different regiments and in two departments, his friends will perhaps recognise him. His bag included thirty-one tigers, twenty-five bears, eighteen panthers, one cheetah, and one lynx, among the carnivora. He also shot forty-two sambhnr, besides other deer, antelopes, and goats. The thirty-three " bison " which fell to his rifle were presumably our, as there are no real bison in India. The name is misapplied by sportsmen to the gaur, just as the American bison is miscalled buffalo. The book is readable, and the writer has a hunter's knowledge of wild beasts and their ways. He should have plenty of material for a book, but his writing is sometimes dogmatic, and is often disfigured by slang. Since he is anonymous, we may also aid that his narrative is not marked by that modesty which generally characterises the English soldier and sportsman.
We may recommend, lastly, to those who are beginning the fascinating study of birds, Mr. Anthony Collett's Handbook of British Inland Birds. It is a book which aims at encouraging the beginner who wants to learn how to identify the common or rarer birds which he is likely to come across. With this object, the stragglers and the sea birds are omitted from the book. As to the first, there can be no doubt that a beginner is greatly bewildered by the long accounts of birds that have only been identified two or three times, and may never occur again. We are not sure that the omission of the sea birds does not give the reader a feeling that his handbook is incomplete. After all, what is a sea bird ? The beginner is certain to be greatly assisted by the short, clear, well-observed, and well-written accounts of the two hundred species that are included. Mr. Collett has made a point of dwelling upon the striking differences of plumage, voice, or habit that distinguish birds which may most easily be mistaken. He has succeeded admirably in doing this without including a mass of detail which overwhelms those whose knowledge of ornithology is elementary. The little handbook is illustrated by plates of eggs by Mr. Eric Parker, which are well reproduced in colours.
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