592 Analytical Notices of Books. 



ceeded in rescuing the Science from the darkness and confusion 

 into which an opposite practice had in no small degree contributed 

 to plunge it, will not become general. Were it to do so, it would 

 unquestionably tend to retard the progress of knowledge, by ren- 

 dering it more difficult of acquisition. In the present instance this 

 oversight, for as such alone can we consider it, will in all pro- 

 bability be repaired when M. Lichtenstein shall favour the Zoo- 

 logical world with the revision of the entire genus which he states 

 it to be his intention to publish. 



To his admirable illustrations of those passages in the writings 

 of the Ancients, in which the animals of this genus are noticed, 

 we can only refer as presenting the results of extensive reading, 

 skilful combination, and plausible conjecture. 



Histoire Naturelle des principales Productions de P Europe Meri- 

 dionale^ — et particulierement de celles des Environs de Nice et 

 des Alpes Maritimes j par A. Risso. Tomes Hi. et v. 



Like the fourth volume of this useful work, which was noticed 

 in our last number, the third and fifth are also entirely devoted to 

 Zoology ; the third embracing the whole of the Vertebrata of the 

 district of Nice, and the fifth, the InvertebratOy with the excep- 

 tion of the Mollusca and the Annelida. 



In the list of Mammalia^ which extends to fifty-nine species, 

 the only novelties are two species of Delphinus: one of them, the 

 D. Bayeri^ having been originally figured and described in the 

 Acta Medica Academiae CaBsareae Naturae Curiosorum, and since 

 erroneously referred by Cuvier to the genus Physeter, Lacep. ; 

 and the other, the D. Desmaresti, " dorso carinato, abdomine 

 rotundato, rostro elongato ; maxill^ inferiore longiore, dentibus 

 duobus conicis armati," having been first noticed by M. Risso. 

 The approximation of the latter to the D. diodon of Hunter is 

 evident from the specific character ; it difi*ers in the flatness of its 

 head, in the strength and great elongation of the lower jaw, in 

 the acuteuess of its pectoral fins, and in the white line; which 



