Bibliographical Notices. 435 



vancement of zoology. Its author is already known to the public by 

 a small brochure published a few years back on the Arvicolce of the 

 neighbourhood of Liege*. In the work now under review, he has 

 revised and described all the known species belonging to the three 

 genera of Sorex, Mus, and Arvicola inhabiting Europe ; and he has 

 taken great pains in the investigation of their synonyms, and in the 

 endeavour to fix their respective characters with certainty and pre- 

 cision, besides giving ample notices of all that had been observed re- 

 specting their habits and places of abode. As these genera belong 

 to, or almost form in themselves, three distinct families of Mammalia, 

 and two out of the three belong even to different orders, it is clear 

 that they could not be collected into one group, established upon 

 their mutual affinities, and offering any characters by which they 

 might be distinguished in common from the rest of the class. It is 

 this circumstance which has led M. De Selys-Longchamps to adopt 

 as a title to his work the term ' Etudes de Micromammalogie ;' in- 

 dicating simply the study of the Cheiroptera, Insectivora, and Roden- 

 tia, or the three orders of Mammalia embracing the smallest species 

 in the class, and none of which exceed a moderate size : and he dis- 

 claims all idea of attaching any further importance to this term, or 

 of wishing it to be accepted rigorously, as implying a distinct branch 

 of Mammalogy. With regard to the particular genera selected for 

 illustration in this work, it is observed that they are those least un- 

 derstood and most numerous in species ; and that the greater part 

 of the other Rodentia may be found in the works of Pallas, Desmarest, 

 Fred. Cuvier, and De Blainville. We much regret, however, that the 

 Cheiroptera are not included, owing, it is alleged, to the author's 

 not having been able to see himself all the described species, which 

 he considers indispensable to enable him to proceed with his task 

 surely. The reason is a good one ; and it may serve to impress us 

 with a sense of the caution which he has used in endeavouring to 

 elucidate those groups, monographs of which are now submitted to 

 the public. 



That he might profit from what has been accomplished by others 

 on the same subject, M. De Selys-Longchamps has visited a large 

 number of museums in France, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany. He 

 has also been in correspondence with all the principal naturalists 

 whose names have been associated with any of the groups here 

 treated of. With many of them he has effected an interchange of 

 specimens ; and by these means he has been enabled to identify such 



* Essai Monographique sur les Campagnols des Environs de Liege. liege, 

 1836. 8vo, pp. 15. 4 planches coloriees. 



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