

i8 93 . SOME NEW BOOKS. 303 



comparative rarity, ranges, native names, and other such particulars 

 of the animals as can only be learnt on the spot, and then only by an 

 enthusiastic lover of the subject. 



In all 144 species are recognised as inhabitants of Borneo, and 

 of these about twenty of all sorts, from monkeys to shrews and mice, 

 have been added to the fauna by Mr. Hose and his friend and 

 co-worker, Thos. A. H. Everett, to whose advice and encouragement 

 zoological science is largely indebted for the enrolment of such an 

 ardent recruit as our author has proved himself to be. 



Such work as Mr. Hose's is a type of what ought to be going on 

 all over the world, wherever Englishmen with their national love of 

 sport and natural history are living in the midst of a fauna as yet 

 undisturbed by the onward march of civilisation. As European 

 settlements and colonies gradually cover the earth the native fauna is 

 inevitably killed out, either directly for sport or food, or indirectly by 

 the introduction of domestic and parasitic animals. Now, and for 

 the next twenty years, is, therefore, the time that our museums should 

 be filled with carefully-preserved specimens of all sorts, so that our 

 successors may have some chance of actually seeing examples of the 

 animals which will soon no longer exist in nature. There can be no 

 greater absurdity than the recent clamour made by certain " nature- 

 lovers " in decrying the killing of specimens for collections, since such 

 collecting can have not the slightest appreciable effect in extermi- 

 nating species in comparison with many other processes now going on, 

 notably the barbarous slaughter of birds for their feathers ; a method 

 by means of which millions of individuals are killed and their spoils 

 thrown away after a year or two's administering to someone's vanity 

 and thoughtlessness. How great is the destruction thus worked is to 

 be gathered from the fact that the British Museum collection of birds, 

 the largest in the world, does not consist of so many individual skins as 

 have been sold for the purposes of fashion at a single day's sale at a 

 City warehouse. But, protest as we may, the sad fact has to be faced 

 that many of the most interesting and beautiful species now existing 

 are doomed to destruction, and the liberal storage of specimens in 

 museums for careful and long preservation appears to be the only 

 means to give our successors the advantage we ourselves enjoy ; and 

 to decry such accumulations is a form of sentimental selfishness of 

 which we hope no reader of Natural Science will be guilty. Such 

 work as Mr. Hose's, therefore, combining, as it does, both observation 

 and collection, is worthy of the highest commendation, and we may 

 well wish him success in his future studies of the rich Bornean 

 fauna. O. T. 



The Amphioxus and its Development. By Dr. B. Hatschek. Translated and 

 Edited by James Tuckey, M.A., Lecturer in the University of Durham. 

 Pp. 181, with nine full page illustrations. London : Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 

 1S93. Price 6s. 



It is difficult to know exactly what to say about this book. It is a 

 bald translation of Dr. Hatschek's researches on Amphioxus with 

 marvellously incapable reproductions of the beautiful figures. The 

 excuse of the "translator and editor "for the book is that hitherto 

 " these investigations have not been accessible to that portion of the 

 scientific world which does not read German." It may be laid down 

 dogmatically that that portion of the scientific world which does not 

 read German has no business with original memoirs. The results of 



