386 REVIEWS OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



Mr. Wilson agrees with Temminck in believing the Gloved Cat (Felts mani- 

 culata) of Northern Africa to be the origin of our domestic breed, contrary to the 

 general opinion in favour of the Wild Cat (F. catus) of Britain. — Of the Opossums 

 it is remarked, that " their intelligence is limited, a fact in curious conformity with 

 the entire absence of all folds or convolutions of the brain, and according with 

 the theory of M. Desmoulins Qmt which originated with Dr. Gall. — Ed.] that 

 [ccetet'is paribus. — Ed.] the intellectual faculties are in the direct ratio of the 

 extent of the cerebral surfaces." (p. 127). — The Hamster (Cricetus vulgaris), 

 like other hybernating animals, is very fat on the approach of winter, and becomes 

 sadly emaciated when it awakes in spring. During that period of inactivity, 

 the pulsations of the heart are " few and far between," the intestines are wholly 

 devoid of irritability, and the fat of the creature has the appearance of being 

 coagulated. In this, as in other cases where no food is taken in the ordinary 

 way, no doubt the fat affords ample nourishment to the animal in common sea- 

 sons ; but if the rigours of winter should ever be prolonged considerably beyond 

 their due bounds, so as to exhaust the fat, the animal would assuredly sleep to 

 wake no more. 



The flesh of the Capybara or Water-hog (llydrochcerus capybara) of South 

 America, says our author, is excellent, and was eaten by the missionary monks 

 during Lent with their Turtle, " on the score, it was presumed, of its amphibious 

 habits. Precise views of the exact nature of all Mammalia are sometimes in- 

 convenient." 



A specimen of the Malay Tapir (Tapir Indicus) described by Sir Stamford 

 'Raffles, " was frequently observed to enter a pond and walk along the bottom 

 under water, but without any exercise of the ordinary mode of swimming." (p. 

 151). What, then, becomes of the much-talked-of impossibility of the Dipper's 

 walking at the bottom of the water ? If the above fact neither proves the occur- 

 rence of the latter phenomenon, nor causes every argument on the opposite side 

 to " vanish into thin air," it at least deprives the idea of its supposed absurdity. 



Speaking of the equine race, Mr. Wilson observes : — 



" A remarkable distinction is said to exist between the temper of the South- American and 

 Asiatic wild Horses. It is this. At whatever age the former are caught, they may be rendered, 

 in a measure, fit for the service of Man almost in a few days, whereas the latter can only be tamed 

 when taken young, and frequently show themselves in after life to have been but half subdued. 

 Does not this go far to prove that the one is the genuine original — the other but a rebel race ?'' — 

 p. 152. 



In our opinion it does not. We should make exactly an opposite induction, 

 namely, that the Asiatic are the genuine originals — an opinion supported, we 

 may observe, by the scriptural account of the peopling of the world. • 



The descriptions of Cetaceous animals (Whales, &c. &c.) finish the volume, but 

 we must now hasten to a close. 



