Cock Robin, and other Stories. By F. Carruthers Gould. (West-
minster Gazette Office.) —Mr. Gould writes his fanciful stories about birds and beasts confabulating very well. And if his text is good, his illustrations, as might be supposed, are very good indeed. But we must own that we were far more interested when he took us from his fanciful creatures to his real. It is amusing to read how Mr. and Mrs. Hedgehog thought it a great promotion, but found it in practice a great bore, to eat their Christmas dinner with Sir Rodent and Lady Squirrel, but it is positively entrancing to be introduced to his magpie. Never, we should think, has mis- chief been more visibly incarnated in mortal creature. His ways of going on looked like possession. "A dog hides a bone," writes Mr. Carruthers Gould, "because he thinks he may want it again, but 'Jack' secreted things simply because he thought other people wanted them." And how admirable was his way of dealing with daddy-long-legs. Wasps and bees he would swallow, but not daddies. "If one came in his way, he would nip it, and then carefully insert the squirming bunch of legs between the leaves of a book, put it down with one foot and leave it there."
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