288 Bibliographical Notices, 



They are equally destructive as the European and Canadian Ot- 

 ters ; and, as their depredations continue the whole year, their haunts 

 being never frozen over during the period when Otters of the colder 

 zones feed upon terrestrial animals, — their food is restricted to fish 

 alone, and old Izaak Walton would no doubt have found additional 

 cause to bestow hard names upon these " villanous vermin." 



The fur of the Canadian Otter forms an important article of com- 

 merce, and seven to eight thousand skins are annually imported by 

 the Hudson's Bay Company alone. The skin of the Otter of Guiana 

 has, by competent judges, been pronounced equal in quality ; and it 

 might prove of advantage to hunt it for the sake of its skin. General 

 Parr's cavalry used them for pistol covers and foraging regimental 

 caps. 



The Arawak Indians of Guiana call it Assiero ; the Caribisi^ Ava- 

 ripuya ; the Tarumas, Carangueh ; the Warraus, the smaller species 

 Etopu, the larger ItsJia-keya ; the Macusis, the first Dura, the latter 

 Maparua. In the colony they are known by the name of Water- 

 dogs, bearing some resemblance to the canine race when swim- 

 ming. 



[To be continued.] 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



A Manual of the Land and Freshwater Shells of the British Islands, 

 with Figures of each of the kinds. By William Turton, M.D. 

 A new Edition, thoroughly revised and much enlarged, by John 

 Edward Gray, F.R.S. London, 1840. 12mo. 



Dr. Turton's ' Manual' has long been known as a useful com- 

 panion to the student of British land and freshwater shells, although 

 in its original state it must be admitted to have been defective in 

 much of that varied information which the more advanced state of 

 our knowledge in this, as in other departments of natural history, 

 imperatively demands. In the present edition Mr. Gray (on whose 

 recent appointment to the Keepership of the Zoology in the national 

 collection we have to congratulate the Museum and the country) 

 has fully supplied the deficiency, and has produced a work of a very 

 different and far higher character, which except in name, in a por- 

 tion of the descriptive letter-press, and in the greater part of the 

 figures accompanying it, may be regarded as entirely new. 



Mr. Gray's * Introduction ' includes, among other interesting 

 matter, a detailed account of no fewer than 50 species of land and 



