384 REVIEWS OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



of colour occurring in the Alpine Hare, the Ptarmigan, and other Arctic animals, 

 are the effect of temperature ; and in our opinion the existence of pure white birds 

 in the tropics, and jet-black Ravens in the bleak north, is no argument to the 

 contrary, but merely proves — what every one knows — that all birds are not 

 organised alike. 



From those authors who would class Man among the brutes, and technically 

 characterise him as differing in mere external points, we entirely dissent. It 

 is by the possession of moral and especially of reflective faculties, that the human 

 race so transcendentally surpasses all other portions of the animal kingdom — by 

 the addition of those alone that Man is enabled to become lord of the earth. We 

 cannot but smile when we see him characterized, in two lines, as " walking erect," 

 " possessing hands to the anterior extremities only," &c, and must pity those who 

 take so low a view of human nature — of a race which on this earth deserves the 

 deepest attention, and which will hereafter, we confidently believe, continue to 

 advance in wisdom and in happiness through all eternity. 



Father Vincent Marie states that the Wanderou (Macacus silenus) " is 

 easily trained to the performance of a variety of ceremonies, grimaces, and affected 

 courtesies." In reply to this our author, with a touch of the quiet humour which 

 frequently enlivens his pages, observes that he never had the pleasure of knowing 

 more than one living individual of the species, and that u the only piece of ' affected 

 courtesy' it ever exhibited, consisted in nearly biting off the calf of a negro's leg." 

 — p. 93. The younger St. Hilaire informs us that the Sapajous (Cebus) in- 

 dulge in abstract ideas, his proof being that he once observed one of these animals 

 which had met with an unusually hard nut, descend from the top of a wobder 

 cage, and crack the said nut by bruising it against an iron bar. For the same 

 reason, we put in a claim for the Garden Tit's " indulging in abstract ideas," 

 since, when it meets with an unusually hard nut, it places it in a chink, and there 

 hammers at it till it arrives at the kernel ! " It is delightful," remarks Mr. 

 Wilson, " to find Metaphysics thus combined with Natural History." — p. 95. 

 Whether, in recording that the physiognomy of the Saimiri, or Squirrel-monkej 

 (Saguinus sciureics), is "extremely like that of a human infant, but much more 

 pleasing than that of many," our author intended any compliment to the taste of 

 the ladies, we must leave to the sagacity of our female readers to determine. The 

 same animal is remarkably attached to its offspring, and Geoffroy St. Hilaire 

 observes that the large development of the posterior lobe of the brain corresponds 

 with the affection. 



The Lemur family is next treated of; but as these animals have been described 

 minutely in an early part of our second volume (pp. 1 — 13 and 189 — 203), we 

 shall not tarry here. — The Hedgehog, according to Pallas, feeds on the Blister- 

 ing-beetle (Cantharis) with impunity, and, adds Mr. Wilson, it has been known 



