222 NATURAL SCIENCE. ^av. 



the work, including the account of the author's first cruise to 

 Southern Labrador in i860, and the first chapter of the voyage to the 

 northern part of the country in 1864, have also seen the light in 

 various serials ; but it appears that the other four chapters descrip- 

 tive of the latter voyage, as well as one on Recent Explorations, are 

 now published for the first time. 



The earlier portion of the work is devoted to a description of 

 the physical geography of the country, and to an investigation into 

 the history of its discovery, from which we learn that Labrador was 

 known to the Norsemen " nearly five centuries before John Cabot 

 made his first landfall of the American Continent." The chapters 

 descriptive of the author's two journeys to Labrador contain much 

 entertaining reading, and give a good idea of the general characters 

 and productions of the country. Many interesting observations are 

 recorded on the sea-birds of the coast, but we wish that the author 

 was not quite so fond of calling one and the same bird by different 

 names, since this is sometimes rather puzzling to his readers, as, for 

 instance, on page 103. Then, again, although we are well aware 

 that the puffin is frequently known as the " sea-parrot," we must 

 object to its appearance under the name of " perroquet," without any 

 qualifying prefix (p. 66). The vast diminution in the number of 

 the gannets referred to on page 98 shows how urgent is the need of 

 protection for sea-birds, even in such a remote region as Labrador ; 

 this necessity being even more apparent in the case of the eider- 

 duck, which was threatened with extermination until the forays of 

 the "eggers" were stopped. 



While the zoology and botany are fully treated, the ethnology 

 and geology of the country receive full attention from the author, and 

 the experiences during his own voyages are well supplemented by a 

 short chapter on recent explorations. Ample lists of the fauna and 

 f^ora of the coast are given in the concluding chapters of the work 

 before us, which will probably long remain the standard authority 

 on all matters connected with the " Land of Labour." 



Phases of Animal Life, Past and Present. By R. Lydekker. lamo. Pp. 248. 

 London : Longmans, Green & Co., 1892. Price 6s. 



This little volume, which is the first of the "Knowledge" series, 

 is a reprint, with some additions, of articles originally appearing in 

 our contemporary Knowledge. Needless to say, the whole of the 

 subjects are treated in a popular manner, as the work is intended 

 solely for those having an interest in natural history, but not professed 

 students thereof. There are many somewhat similar works devoted 

 only to the animals of the present epoch, but the especial claim to 

 attention of the one before us is that it endeavours to illustrate, in a 

 popular manner, some of the leading features of many extinct groups 

 of vertebrates. It is, indeed, almost exclusively with vertebrates 

 that the work deals, but it must by no means be inferred that fossil 

 forms alone are referred to. There is a chapter on Tortoises and 

 Turtles, and there are others on Marsupials and Monotremes, all of 

 which deal mainly with living types. Some of the chapters treat 

 solely of the structural features of various groups, living or extinct, 

 while others are designed to show how different groups of animals 

 are modified for similar modes of existence ; and others, again, show 

 the modifications which particular organs, like teeth, have undergone 

 in different orders of animals. The volume is illustrated b}- nearly 



