19 APRIL 1884, Page 25

Animal Lore of Shakespeare's Time. By Emma Phipson. (Began Paul,

Trench, and Co.)—This is a volume full of carious information. Shakespeare gives a name to it, but it is the contemporaries of Shakespeare—the word being taken in a pretty wide significance— that occupy the greater part of it. Shakespeare himself is scarcely so great, so all-knowing, in the matter of the brutes, as he is in speak- ing of man. He does not recognise, for instance, the good qualities of the dog, of which he speaks with Oriental contempt. He says little, too, of the ant, though he praises the bee. Of the merits of this book we do not pretend. to judge. Let it_be enough to say that wherever the reader may chance to look into it, he will be sure to find something curious and interesting. If there are any errora, we can only say that we have not found any, except it be that Miss Phipson tells us that the " schelly " is another name for the gwiniad, given to it on account of the large size of the scales. That the chub is called the " schelly," or " skally," in Westmoreland, and probably elsewhere, we know ; but we doubt it of the gwiniad.