232 The Irish Naturalist November, 1901. 



captures on the neighbouring estate. Not content with grouse, ducks, 

 and geese, they killed a number of lambs, and did a lot of damage. 

 Several times while shooting, the dogs found grouse half-eaten and 

 buried in the ground for future use. Has any increase in the number of 

 Foxes been noticed in other parts of Ireland? Perhaps the dry spring 

 and summer favoured the cubs. 



Belfast. 



Robert Patterson. 



REVIEW. 



FLATWORMS AND NEMERTEANS. 



A Treatise on Zoology. Edited by Prof. E. Ray Lankester, 

 IvE.D., F.R.S. Part IV. The Platyhelmia, Mesozoa and Nemertini. By 

 W. B. Benham, d.sc, m.a. London: Adam and Charles Black, 

 1 901 ; pp. vi. + 204- 15s. net. 



Another volume of Professor Lankester's treatise on Zoology, Part IV. , 

 has just been issued. To those still immersed in reading the last 

 volume, the title, Platyhelmia, sounds rather strange, as Mr. Bourne in 

 his article on the Ctenophora always referred to them by the name of 

 " Platyhelminthes." Besides dealing with the group of " Flatwonns " 

 or Platyhelmia, to which the tape-worm belongs, the volume treats of 

 the Mesozoa (an aberrant group of minute parasitic forms), and of the 

 Nemertini. 



It is unfortunate, as the Editor points out, that Dr. Benham, the 

 author of the present volume, had his part already in print three years 

 ago, when he left England for New Zealand. At the same time the 

 Editor is satisfied that no important omissions due to this fact occur 

 in the book. However, when we come to examine the chapter on the 

 Nemertini — a very interesting group of elongated worms characterised 

 by the possession of a muscular eversible proboscis — we lind a few rather 

 serious omissions. Thus we fail to notice any mention of the genus 

 Planktonemertes, described by Woodworth in 1899, or of the more recentl)* 

 described remarkable Baicalonemertes — a fresh-water genus which is sup- 

 posed to form a link between the meso- and the metanemertines. 



Again, in the chapter on the Turbellaria, such genera as Bohmigia^ 

 Mesocastrada, and Diplopenis, all of which were described in 1898 and 1899 j 

 have been left out. 



We notice " the Mesozoa," prominent on the title-page ; but the chapter 

 which treats of the group is headed " Rhombozoa " and " Orthonectida," 

 and only a passing reference to the term Mesozoa occurs at the end. 



The illustrations, as in previous volumes, are mostly excellent while 

 the type is good and practically free from misprints. Though the volume 

 before us is somewhat disappointing after the two previous ones referred 

 to in last year's Irish Naturalist, yet it cannot be denied that it is the best 

 work on the subject which has yet been written. 



R. F. S. 



