54 Bibliographical Notices, 



8. *■ On the Genera and Species of the Comatula,' by Joh. Miiller, 

 which terminates the present part. 



In concluding this notice, we may express the wish that the va- 

 rious parts may appear with more regularity than heretofore. 



W. Francis. 



The Naturalist's Library : Mammalia. Vol. xi. Marsupialia, or 

 Pouched Animals. By G. R. Waterhouse, Esq., Curator to the 

 Zool. Soc. Lond. 



The eleventh volume of this valuable and deservedly popular work, 

 containing a history of the ' Marsupialia, or Pouched Animals,' has 

 just appeared. The confusion in which the Marsupials have been 

 hitherto involved, renders a volume exclusively devoted to them pe- 

 culiarly interesting ; the author of the work being an able naturalist 

 and possessing abundant facilities for the successful prosecution of 

 his labours, of which he has availed himself with great acumen and 

 industry in the execution of his task. 



Mr. Waterhouse commences by an Introduction, in which a con- 

 cise review is taken of the history of the Marsupialia from the time 

 of Linnaeus to the present day, in which the views of various natu- 

 ralists are examined, — a preliminary step to an exposition of the 

 principles by which he is guided in the arrangement of these singular 

 mammals. The point at issue between some naturalists of great 

 eminence — namely, whether the Marsupialia constitute a natural 

 group, of which the component parts are linked together by such 

 bonds of structural relationship as cannot be dissolved with pro- 

 priety, or whether the group is unnatural, its assumed component 

 parts belonging, in truth, to other orders — is discussed with great 

 clearness. 



Cuvier, Geoffroy St. Hilaire, De Blainville, and Owen, celebrated 

 no less for anatomical than for zoological knowledge, insist upon the 

 former position. Among their opponents are Storr, Illiger, Swainson, 

 and Ogilby. After detailing the arguments of these scientific men, 

 and giving the results of his own analysis of the Marsupials, which he 

 considers as forming a natural order, Mr. Waterhouse, alluding to 

 Mr. Swainson's erroneous assertions, " that nearly all our leading 

 naturalists have acknowledged the artificial nature of the assem- 

 blage," thus writes : " I think we might, on the other hand, say with 

 safety, that all the most eminent anatomists (these being at the 

 same time zoologists) agree in uniting them I could wish, how- 

 ever, that this important question should not rest upon authority ; — 

 but to go through the train of reasoning by which the anatomists 

 have arrived at their conclusions, would require more space than can 

 be spared in a volume like the present." 



" It has often been stated that the Marsupiata consist of animals 

 of most dissimilar organization, and are united together only by a 

 single peculiarity ; however little weight some zoologists may attach 

 to this single peculiarity, its value was almost immediately appre- 

 ciated by the anatomists and physiologists. But I will now proceed 



