Popidar Zoology, 537 



Anon, : Popular Zoology ; comprising Memoirs and Anec- 

 dotes of the Quadrupeds, Birds, and Reptiles in the 

 Zoological Society's Menagerie ; with Figures of the more 

 important and interesting. 12mo, 400 pages. London, 

 1832. 75. 6d. in cloth. 



In this conveniently sized manual, the woodcuts, we 

 believe, exceed 100; there being about 15 of the buildings 

 and views in the gardens, and about 92 figures of as many 

 animals : the total number of animals described in the volume 

 is still greater. The woodcuts of the animals, although not 

 faultlessly, are respectably, executed. The descriptions consist 

 of statements of the distinguishing points of difference between 

 one species of animal and another, and therefore of incidental 

 notices of structure ; but chiefly, and more abundantly, of 

 narratives, compiled from authors of credit, of the native 

 habits, manners, office in the plan of Providence, and 

 instincts of the respective animals. The book is an amusing 

 and instructive, and consequently a useful, one ; but the state 

 of science of this day might have produced a better. The 

 animals described are not made to succeed each other in suffi- 

 cient accordance to their resemblances in form and structure; 

 and as the index is alphabetic, no arrangement in the work' 

 itself could have been less convenient than the present one, an 

 alphabetic index being an extricating clue to every difficulty. 

 For a second edition, the compiler will do well to keep his 

 eye on system ; and we conceive the value of such a work 

 might be increased a thousand-fold, and not rendered at all 

 puzzling, repulsive, unpopular, and thereby unsaleable, were 

 woodcuts, illustrative of the structure of the organs most sub- 

 servient and ministrant to the necessities and habits of par- 

 ticular animals, and, indeed, of animals generally, introduced, 

 either in addition to, or in preference to, figures of their out- 

 line and contour. At this day, surely, a figure of an elephant 

 is less desirable than sectional figures of its trunk, and of the 

 lobulate divisions of its foot, &c. In the feline race, too, 

 pictures of the lion, tiger, &c., are needless, and almost use- 

 less : not so would be cuts exhibitive of their prehensive 

 capacity of talon, of jaw, and power of dental execution. In 

 the beaver, let the peculiarities of the incisor teeth, and the 

 extraordinary structure of the tail, be especially illustrated : 

 and so of some peculiarity of structure in every species of 

 animal whose habits of life are in the least peculiar. Among 

 the bills, talons, legs, wings, &c., of birds, much of this kind' 

 of illustration would prove delightfully assistant to the memory, 

 in preserving a recollection of the habits and manners of the 

 various species or genera to which these peculiarities of struc-' 

 ^nre might beloniJC- — J- D. 



