236 REPORT ON ZOOLOGY, MDCCCXLIV. 



own author, will certainly play no further jest with any one else. The 

 number five is for Kaup the bed of Procrustes ; when the body to be laid 

 upon this is too large or long, he shortens it, and when too short, unmer- 

 cifully stretches it ; so that our author may well glory in such adroit dealings : 

 while he observes, " that hitherto no exception has occurred to me which 

 might detract from the validity of the number 5, and I challenge Zoologists 

 at large to point me such an one out." If we look into the details of this 

 schematism, we are everywhere met by great capriciousness of arrangement. 

 Tims e. g. the Rodentia, Insectivora, Marsupialia, Cheiroptera, and sub- 

 species of Quadrumana have been thrown together into a single order, the 

 Carnivora united with the Cetacea ; among Birds the entire work of Nitzsch, 

 with all its great results, has been left disregarded. Readily as we acknow- 

 ledge the merit and importance of Kaup's paleeontological contributions, the 

 work now before us must, on the contrary, be declared a failure in its design. 

 All further discussion will be therefore deferred, until the large museums of 

 animated nature bestir themselves to dispose their Mammalia and Birds 

 according to the new classification. 



Of a different kind from the above is the Systematische 

 Verzeiclmiss aller bis jetzt bekannten Saxigtliiere, oder 

 Synopsis Mammalium nach dem Cnvierschen Systeme von 

 Dr. Heinrich Sclrinz ; Soloth, 1844, vol. i. 



The arrangement of Cuvier is taken for a basis, and in conformity there- 

 with the orders of Apes, Bats, Rapacious quadrupeds, and Marsupials are 

 treated of in the first book. The fabrication of such a synopsis can at pre- 

 sent occasion no great difficulty, when we have before us the published 

 labours of Schrebcr, with, furthermore, the excellent nionography of Water- 

 house on the Marsupialia, and that of Nilssou on the Seals. There is nothing- 

 new to be found in this synopsis ; even the previous literature might have 

 been examined among other things more closely. Thus, e. g., scarcely any 

 reference has been made to the superlative work of Nitzsch ; so that the 

 species of Seals have not been properly arranged by Schinz. Phoca probos- 

 cidea and cristata, which in their entire structure obviously approximate 

 each other, have been removed to the two extremities of the genus. 

 After Phoca vituliua and caspica directly follows Ph. barbata ; but then 

 comes the Ph. annellata : a mode of arrangement that is utterly at fault, 

 since the Ph. barbata differs in the condition of the dental system, cra- 

 nium, vibrissse, and feet so strikingly from the three other species, which 

 present the highest amount of similarity to each other, that it cannot pro- 

 perly find a place amongst them. The critical examination, bestowed by 

 Nitzsch upon the genus Otaria, is completely overlooked, so that a number 

 of nominal species are still figured. In treating of the genus Nasua, Schinz 



