72 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



BOOK NOTICE. 



The Life of the Mollusca. By B. B. Woodward, F.L.S. Methuen 

 & Co., London. Pp. xi. + 158, with 32 plates and a map. 6s. 



In no group of animals has more attention been paid to the 

 inorganic armour of life the shell and in proportion less to life 

 itself than in the great assemblage of shellfish or Mollusca. This 

 interesting volume comes as a healthy reminder to collector and zoologist 

 alike, that the living animal is the centre of the system, and that the 

 full significance of the shells themselves can be grasped only as their 

 structures are seen in relation to the varying necessities of life. Thus, 

 we are shown, the life of the inmate is safeguarded from the force of 

 breakers by extraordinary developments of shell substance, such as are 

 absent from the sheltered inhabitants of the open or deep sea, or even 

 of quiet coastal or fresh water ; or it is protected from enemies by 

 devices which block the entrance, by projecting teeth, internal spring 

 doors, hinged trap doors, and such like. Yet, curiously enough, there 

 is patent in the higher members of most Molluscan groups a progressive 

 tendency to reduce or altogether discard the shell, the weight of which 

 hinders locomotion and capture of live food. Admirable summaries are 

 given of the classification, the geological and present-day history of 

 Mollusca, of their general habits, growth, breeding, and uses ; and 

 a particularly suggestive chapter touches upon some interesting points 

 in the evolution of the group. The lack of English names handicaps 

 the unfamiliar reader, but this is a weakness of the subject and not of 

 the author. The following trifles ought to be corrected in a future 

 impression : superfluous parenthesis in bottom line, p. 56 ; printer's 

 error in 1. 15, p. 61 ; Fig. 1 to 6, 1. 5, p. 96, should read Fig. 2 to 6. 

 There is a good index, and a very large series of useful figures. The 

 work is a concise summary, which ought to be in the hands of all 

 naturalists, zoologists, and collectors. J. R. 



