320 Bibliographical Notices. 



Malacologia Monensis : a Catalogue of the Mollusca inhabiting the Isle 

 of Man and the neighbouring Sea. By Edward Forbes, For. Sec. 

 B.S. &c Edin. 1838. Duod. pp. 63, with three plates. 



We are partial to books of this description, which, although requi- 

 ring no high attainments on the part of their authors, and productive 

 of little fame and no money, are essential towards the completion of 

 a British Fauna, and are very acceptable to that class of men who 

 find their "hobby" in the quiet pursuit of collecting objects of na- 

 tural history, — men whose pleasure it is to discover species hitherto 

 unknown, and who accustom themselves to see 

 " Form in things which to the eye 



Half-read is but deformity ; — 



Grandeur in mean things and small, 



And God's great handiwork in all ! " 



To such this will be an acceptable volume, containing as it does a 

 copious list of species found in a little island, of the conchology of 

 which little is to be learned in works of more pretension and greater 

 extent. A few more notices illustrative of habit in the creatures, 

 and an occasional note relative to anything remarkable in the habitat, 

 would have been agreeable, and would have served to keep the reader 

 lingering a little over pages which are essentially a catalogue, and ex- 

 hibit scarcely more than a list of species. We would strongly im- 

 press on the attention of local Faunists the extrinsic aids and orna- 

 ments by which they might render their "opuscula subseciva" some- 

 what more extensively interesting and attractive. 



As we glance over the pages, we remark that Doris Flemingii, as 

 D. nigricans of Fleming is here called, is no other than D. pilosa, 

 confirming a conjecture offered at p. 55 of the ' Annals.' The Me- 

 libcea fragilis of Mr. Forbes, rather ambiguously characterized, is M. 

 coronata of the 'Annals,' p. 117. Eubranchus, a new genus among 

 the Nudibranchia, is thus defined : 



Corpore ovato, convexiusculo ; tentaculis quatuor; oculis nullis; dorso 

 branchiis ovatis instructo : 



and the only species, E. tricolor, 



Corpore albo-cameo ; branchiis pyriformo-ovatis tricoloribus. Long. + 

 un. Lat. \. 

 The genus is referred, erroneously in our opinion, to the family Glau- 

 cea : it rather belongs to an aberrant group, not yet defined, and to 

 which Triopa likewise appertains. In many ensuing pages there is 

 nothing to detain us until we reach the " Naticida," which Mr. F. 

 has attentively studied, and his remarks on the species will interest 



