I899-] 239 



THE HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN FAUNA. 



The History of the European Fauna. By R. F. Scharff, B.Sc, 



Ph.D., F.Z.S., &c. The Contemporary Science Series, edited by 



Havelock Ellis. London : Walter Scott, Limited, 1899 (pp. viii.4-364). 



Price 6s. 



The latest volume of "The Contemporary Science Series" is the 



outcome of Dr. R. F. ScharfPs paper " On the Origin of the European 



Fauna," which was published in the Proceeding? of the Royal Irish Academy, 



3rd ser., vol. iv., 1897. The paper should be well known to Irish 



naturalists: it was noticed in the Irish Naturalist of September, 1897, 



summarised in Nature, vol. lvi., 1897, and more fully abstracted and, to 



a certain extent, criticised in the Geological Magazine, n.s., vol. iv., 



1897. As published in book-form the paper has, so the author tells us, 



been amplified and improved upon. It has also, of necessity, been 



altered in some respects so as to meet the needs of general readers, and 



in addition to the maps, a number of woodcuts have been introduced. 



However one may feel inclined to differ from Dr. Scharff 's deductions, 

 and it is all but impossible that when a writer deals, as he does, with not 

 only vertebrates and invertebrates, but even with plants, he should not 

 fall foul of some of the specialists on whose particular ground he is 

 treading, one cannot help admiring the broadminded way in which Dr. 

 Scharff has completed his work, the enthusiasm which is manifested in 

 all parts of it, and the industry with which he has sought out and pressed 

 into his service facts taken from the works of zoologists, botanists, 

 and geologists. It is, indeed, refreshing to read a book on the 

 geographical distribution of animals where regions and sub-regions 

 are no longer treated (as were formerly species) as things immutable and 

 almost immortal, whereas, in fact, both the one and the other are terms 

 invented for the convenience of zoologists, to be discarded or replaced 

 by something better the moment they have served the purpose for 

 which they were called into being. Bearing this in mind it can hardly, 

 we think, be doubted that Dr. Scharff will realize his hope that the 

 publication of his book may give a fresh impulse to the study of the 

 geographical distribution of species. 



Having thus shown our high appreciation of his work, we shall not, 

 we hope, be misunderstood when expressing opinions, as we may have 

 to do in several instances, which are not in accord with Dr. Scharff 's. 

 And first we would express regret that he should have considered it 

 necessary to ignore " the latest views in revised nomenclature." It is 

 true that to many of his readers Icpus variabilis is still the Mountain and 

 I. timidus the Brown Hare, but it is surely the part of a popular instructor, 

 which role Dr. Scharff has here taken upon himself, to assist the labours 

 of recognised leaders in the special branches of zoology by adopting the 

 nomenclature suggested to them by their matured thought, even if in 

 doing so he should find it necessary to give a few words of explanation 

 in each case. 



