441 



REVIEWS. 



Art. I. Catalogue of Works on Natural History, lately published^ 

 with some Notice of those considered the most interesting to British 

 Naturalists, 



Anon : Popular Lectures on the Vertebrated Animals of the 

 British Islands. Part I. On the British Mammifera; with 

 a tabular View of them, arranged according to Blumen- 

 bach's System ; a Synopsis of all the Genera and Species ; 

 and an Appendix containing a Sketch of Extinct Animals. 

 8vo, pp. 96. Birmingham, 1831. Wrightson, Birming- 

 ham ; Baldwin, and Longman, London. 



The writer of these Lectures plays with his subject, that is, 

 he discusses it in an ofF-hand manner ; and although in his 

 successive treating of the various animals, one by one, he gives, 

 in English, the technical characteristics of each species, and 

 those of the genus, order, &c., to which it belongs, he gives 

 also, in relation to each, either some sentimental reflection, 

 something interesting that has to his knowledge occurred in 

 association with it, or anecdotes and notices descriptive of the 

 habits of the animal. This untechnical part of the book we 

 regard more than the technical part, because the British 

 animals are to Britons empirically known or distinguishable ; 

 but it is, we fear, far from being the fact, that each is to every 

 Briton a centre of amiable, intellectual, and therefore highly 

 interesting, associations. This is what it is most desirable 

 they, and every object in creation, should be ; and we admire 

 the present manual, as being a cheap means of promoting so 

 desirable an end, and heartily wish that the successful sale 

 of this " Part I." may encourage the author to proceed 

 with the remainder, which he proposes should consist of 

 six parts : " Parts IL, III., and IV., to be respectively de- 

 voted to the description of the land birds, the Grallae or 

 waders, and the water birds ; Part V. to the amphibious 

 animals and cartilaginous fishes ; and Part VI. to the osseous 

 or bony fishes." We cannot state the price of this richly 

 stored pamphlet, or " Part I. ;" but it cannot be high, as it 

 has been got up in a plain, unornamented, but nevertheless 

 clear and neat, manner. 



