Raymond Sheppard and Boy's Companion + Girl's Companion

Last time I shared two books which had the same (with one exception) illustrations by Raymond Sheppard. I stated

Boy's World published by Blackie in 1950 with a sub-title: a collective work by thirty writers was a successor to The Boy's Companion.

Today I want to share the content of two more books by Blackie starting with The Boy's Companion. Edited by B. Webster Smith (Centurions) it was first published in 1947, reprinted in 1948 and 1951 and a new edition created in 1956. One edition I've glanced at online shows the War Economy Standard stamp which ran until 1949 so I suspect this is the 1947 edition.

The editor seems to have penned a lot of the articles but "Dogs and Pets: their care and management" has been written by S. H. Benson.  In the section on cats, we see the first Sheppard illustration.

Boy's Companion p.433

"A dish of clean water should always be at hand" - a lovely image of a cat licking from a dish.

Boy's Companion p.434

A picture of a rabbit in a hutch

Boy's Companion p.435

"See how short they can cut the grass" - two guinea-pigs at work nibbling grass

Boy's Companion p.437

"My cage, a wooden one, the front covered with wire, was about 3ft. long, 2ft. deep, and 2ft. 6in. high" - a wall-mounted box with mesh on the front to house your budgies

Boy's Companion p.438

 "Teach it to stand on your finger" - something I often did with my first budgie, much to my Mother's annoyance!

Boy's Companion p.440

"Showing how to hold canary for cutting claws" something i never attempted

GIRL'S COMPANION Edited by Mary A Carson

First published in 1947 and then reprinted in 1948 and 1951. The new edition was produced as the Boy's Companion above, in 1956. Amazingly it was then reprinted each year from 1958 to 1961 to my knowledge.

The article "Dogs and Pets: their care and management" was written by S. H. Benson and under the heading "Cage Birds Budgerigars" the article actually starts to  change a little - not significantly just in layout. Sheppard's illustrations appear  on pages 561, 562, 563, 565, 566, 569 but here we have one extra image:

Girl's Companion, p.568
A Norwich canary

I didn't realise there were "Yorkshire, Norwich and Crest" canaries!