152 NATURAL SCIENCE. ^,,„„. 



HiSTOIRE PHYSIyUE, NATURELLE ET I'OLITIoUE DE MADAGASCAR. By Alfred 



Grandidier. — Volume xvi. Histoire naturelle des Poissons. By Dr. H. E. 

 Sauvage. 4to. Pp 543. With Altas of 6j plates. Paris: 1891. 



This new instalment of M. Grandidier's admirable work, although 

 bearing the date 1891 on its title page, was not received in this 

 country until the end of last month. Most of the plates, without 

 letterpress, had, however, been previously issued, and were reported 

 in the Zoological Record for 1888. 



Dr. Sauvage's work will prove of much service to the student of 

 the fishes of the Indian Ocean, as the author, from the position he 

 has held for several years in the Paris Museum, has had every facility 

 to compare the types of the numerous species so inadequately 

 described by Cuvier and Valenciennes, Lienard, and Guichenot, with 

 the descriptions of modern ichthyologists. The figures accompanying 

 his volume, although not comparable from an artistic point of view 

 with those of the companion volumes on Mammals and Birds by such 

 accomplished draftsmen as Messrs. Bocourt and Keulemans, are 

 executed with care, and mostly from type specimens ; they thus 

 afford another source of welcome information. 



For the student of geographical distribution, the present work 

 also fails to compare in interest with its predecessors in the same 

 series, through no fault of the author, but from the fact that the 

 freshwater fish-fauna of Madagascar is a very poor one. In fact, 

 apart from the very pronounced negative features of their fauna, the 

 Chromides form the only group calling for special notice. This family, 

 which appeared towards the close of the Cretaceous period in North 

 America, is now confined to Central and South America, Africa and 

 the neighbouring parts of Asia, and Madagascar. A few years ago, 

 only two or three species were known from the latter part of the 

 world ; eight are now on record, referable to four genera, one of which 

 approaches an African type, the three others showing decided affinity 

 to forms now living in tropical America. The fish-fauna, therefore, 

 poor as it is, affords further confirmation of the views held as to the 

 relation of various other groups of animals, reptiles in particular, to 

 South American types. 



The negative features are particularly striking in the absence 

 of Cyprinoids, so abundant in Africa, and Characinoids, a large 

 group special to Africa and America. 



Only two species are given as new in this work, one of which, 

 described and figured as Ekotris sikoric, is clearly an Atheyina. Such 

 an error seems inexcusable, as these two genera, belonging to widely 

 different families, have scarcely anything in common. We are sorry 

 to say this is not the only example of carelessness, Hypoptychus 

 dyboisDskii, an Apodal Gadoid, being figured under the name of Elcotvis 

 tohizona, Stdr., from the mere fact that in Steindachner's original 

 paper in the Sitziingshevichtc of the Vienna Academy for 1880 a trans- 

 position of numbers took place on PI. II. 



The Oak: A Popular Introduction to Forest-Botany. By H. Marshall Ward, M. A., 

 F.R.S. 8vo. Pp. 175. London : Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co., 1892. 

 Price 2s. 6d. 



Professor Marshall Ward's new work forms the third volume of 

 the series of " Modern Science," edited by Sir John Lubbock. 

 Starting with the acorn, the author claims to give "a short account 

 of what is most worth attention in the anatomy and physiology of the 



