Short pieces, old and new, concerned with animal life from the bee to the great ant eater- and of course the wombat. Nature-cum-humor, with the stress on a neat trick- they are not necessarily factual though they are equally not untrue. While some good laughts are to be had, now and again, Cuppy's timing ""aint what it used to be""- space between is overlong. His style is light, easy, fluent, casually intimate, with a loose- wristed twist. But the humor lies more in the sub-heads than in the reading matter- Mammals for Beginners, Octopuses and Those Things, Insects for Everybody, Birds Who Cant Sing and Know it. Will sell- in moderate quantity- to those who bank on the author's name.