Those Other Animals. By G. A. Henty. (Henry and Co.)—This
is a pleasant, readable volume, as, indeed, all that Mr. Henty writes is pretty sure to be ; but we cannot profess to have found much "wit or humour," though it is part of a series which is intended to be especially distinguished by these qualities. The fun made out of the demand for equal rights for women by a comparison with the female spider's habit of eating the male, is but poor and laboured ; and this is a typical instance of Mr. Henty's humour. No one, again, would describe frogs by the characteristics of "large mouths and general emptiness" (we take it that a frog is not more empty than other creatures), except he wished to introduce a jest at the "human beings who, possessing precisely the same characteristics, are regarded as great statesmen." The chapter on "The Dragon" is particularly poor. If we are to have a serio-comic argument for the existence of dragons, why not urge the fact that "dragon's blood" is a largely used article of commerce ? Still, Mr. Henty's book is the work of one who knows much about his subject, and is often in- teresting—We may mention in this connection a "new and cheaper edition" of Noah's Ark; or, Essays in Unnatural History, by Phil Robinson (Sampson Low and Co.) ; and Anecdotes of the Habits and Instincts of Animals, by Mrs. R. Lee (Griffith, Farran, and Co.)
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