ioo The I?ish Naturalist* April, 1901. 



REVIEW. 



ZOOLOGY OF THE INVERTEBRATES. 



Text-book of Zoology, treated from a Biological Standpoint. By 

 Dr. OTTO Schmeii*. Translated from the German by Rudolph 

 Rosenstock, M.A. Edited by J. T. Cunningham, M.A. Part III. 

 Invertebrates. Pp. viii. and 188, with numerous illustrations. 

 London : A. and C. Black, 1900. Price $s. 6d. 



Dr. Schmeil's Text-book in its English dress has been brought to a 

 commendably prompt conclusion with the issue of the present part, in 

 which the whole of the invertebrate animals are dealt with. Of course 

 in the space allotted, only the outlines of so vast a subject can be 

 sketched, but the descriptions of the animals selected as typical — the 

 White Butterfly, the Crayfish, the Snail, and the Starfish for example — 

 are fully up to the standard of the vertebrate sections of the book, the 

 structural details being brought out with great clearness, and special 

 stress being laid on the uses of the various parts in the living animal. 



From the systematic point of view this part seems to be more 

 satisfactory than Part 2. The invertebrate Phyla of the animal kingdom 

 so generally reviewed, are dealt with in turn from the Arthropoda to 

 the Protozoa, the Sponges being rightly regarded as a Phylum in- 

 dependent both of the latter and of the Ccelenterates. Certain details 

 of arrangement, such as the juxtaposition of the Lepidoptera and 

 Coleoptera at the head of the insects and the intercalation of the 

 Hydrozoa between the Scyphozoaand Anthozoa among the Ccelenterates 

 might reasonably be objected to. Perhaps the weakest chapter is that 

 on the " Worms," only the Annelids, Threadworms, Tapeworms, and 

 Flukes being mentioned without a hint that there are large and important 

 classes altogether neglected. 



It is unfortunate that several of the insects chosen for detailed 

 description are scarce or unknown in our islands. This is unavoidable 

 in such a translation, and as far as the moths and beetles are concerned 

 the student is warned not to expect to meet these particular species in 

 his insular rambles. Unhappily the other orders have been less carefully 

 edited in this respect, and the statement that " on sandy soil . . . we 

 often come across " ant-lion pits (!) will not commend the trustworthiness 

 of the book to those who, ignorant of British entomology, begin to use 

 it practically. Neither will the information that " the most familiar 

 species [of Hemiptera] is undoubtedly Pyrrhocoris apterus." ! 



These, however, are minor defects, and the book as a whole, both on 



account of its thoroughly "live" treatment of the subject and the 



excellence of its illustrations may be warmly commended to students of 



animals. 



G. H. C 



