1897] SOME NEW BOOKS 341 



genetic tree is also added. "When Dr Pelseneer comes to study the 

 gastropoda as systematically as he has done his own favourite bivalves 

 we are convinced he will abandon the classification of the Prosobran- 

 chiata that he at present takes from Bouvier {Ann. Sci. Nat., ser. vii., 

 vol. iii., 1887), which classification is founded solely on the nervous 

 system. He will also add some notice of Thyrophorclla. 



The principal shortcoming, however, of the work as a whole is, we 

 think, the scanty reference to the shell, which is after all an important 

 feature of the mollusca, and in a treatise on zoology merits a place. 

 In this respect the work is an exception to the generality of such pro- 

 ductions where the animal is neglected. Curiously enough it is the 

 Pelecypod shell that is the most curtly dismissed, and this in the light 

 of Bernard's researches is the more to be regretted. 



In the development of Pelecypods, too, we miss all reference to the 

 second origin of gill filaments, by the splitting up of a previously ex- 

 isting lamella, as shown to occur in Cyclas and Teredo by Korschelt 

 and Heider, and again in Scioberetia by Bernard. Likewise our author 

 appears to have overlooked the fact that the glochidial stage is not 

 peculiar to the Unionidae, it having been found by Dall to occur in 

 Philobri/a. Other minor points for criticism are doubtless to be found 

 by those who care to make diligent search for them, but the work all 

 the same merits and will attain a high place in the estimation of those 

 most competent to judge of it, and the praise we ventured to bestow 

 on the first edition is yet more merited in the present one. It will be 

 the author's fault if subsequent editions do not carry us far towards an 

 ideal work on the subject. 



It is only fair to add that a word of praise is but due to the 

 printers and publishers for the excellent way in which they have 

 carried out their share of the undertaking. The illustrations are, of 

 course, those of the previous edition, enlivened in some cases by 

 touches of colour to bring out the salient features they are intended 

 to illustrate. There are two good indexes at the end of the part. 



(BV) 2 

 The Vivarium 



The Vivarium, being a Practical Guide to the Construction, Arrangement, and 

 Management of Vivaria. By Rev. Gregory C. Bateman. 8vo, pp. 424, with 

 plates. London: L. Upcott Gill, 1897. Price, 7s. 6d. 



For very many years Mr Bateman has kept living batrachians and 

 reptiles as pets, and the beautifully got-up little volume now before 

 \is embodies the results of his experience. The work, however, is far 

 more than a practical handbook. The author has added to his own 

 personal observations several illustrated chapters, in which the more 

 striking forms of batrachian and reptilian life are described in a 

 popular manner. He thus appeals to a much wider circle of amateur 

 naturalists than those who keep vivaria. We can thoroughly re- 

 commend the book to the general reader who desires a reliable, well- 

 written, and non-technical account of the much neglected animals of 

 which it treats. Our only complaint is that the illustrations are of 

 very unequal merit, in many cases, indeed, far from accurate ; and 

 this is all the more to be regretted, since most of them are newly 

 drawn, and might have been made admirable by a little more 

 supervision of the artist. 



