SOME NEW BOOKS. 
Types oF ANIMAL LIFE. By St. George Mivart. Small 8vo. Pp. viii. and 374. 
Illustrated. London: Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., 1893. Price 6s. 
AuTuors sometimes fail to do themselves justice by not selecting a 
sufficiently comprehensive title for their productions, but this omission 
certainly cannot be charged against Professor Mivart in regard to the 
present work. When we first opened the volume before us we not 
unnaturally expected to find a work somewhat on the lines of the late 
Professor Rolleston’s well-known ‘‘ Forms of Animal Life,” in which 
typical representatives of the leading groups of animals of all kinds 
would be treated in the author’s well-known style. Our surprise was 
accordingly great when we found that ‘‘ Types of Animal Life ” really 
meant, at the most, ‘‘ Types of Vertebrate Life,” and chiefly ‘‘ Types 
of Mammalian Life.’”’ As a matter of fact, the work is exclusively 
restricted to those groups of Vertebrates possessing limbs differentiated 
into the full number of segments, and consists mainly of essays on the 
leading groups of Mammals; certain chapters being devoted to Birds, 
Reptiles, and Amphibians—apparently with the intention of pointing 
out the essential differences of the members of these groups from 
Mammals. Asa whole, the work may be regarded as a companion 
to the author’s recently-published ‘“‘ Elements of Ornithology,” with 
a chapter on Birds which, in our opinion, might have been 
advantageously omitted. 
The author commences his subject with a well-written disserta- 
tion on monkeys, as the representatives of the highest order of 
Mammals; and in the next chapter takes the opossum as his text for 
a sermon on the lower members of the same class. The next three 
chapters are devoted to the representatives of the lower Vertebrates 
coming within the scope of the work, namely, Birds, Reptiles, and 
Amphibians; while in the sixth chapter the author revertsto Mammals, 
taking the Carolina bat as a typical example of the Chiroptera. Then 
follows a chapter headed the American bison, in which the Ungulates 
are dealt with; whileanother, under the title of the racoon, introduces us 
to the Carnivores; anda third, designated the sloth, treats of the Eden- 
tates. In the tenth chapter, the title sea-lion appropriately 
designates a dissertation on the seals in general; while of the two 
remaining chapters, one is devoted to whales and sirenians (called by 
the author ‘‘mermaids’’) andthesecond treats of such Mammals as are 
not mentioned in the foregoing sections. The last chapter, by the 
way, is entitled ‘the other beasts,’ which leads us to remark that, in 
our opinion, it is decidedly a pity the author has thought fit through- 
out the work to follow the lead of the late Professor Parker in 
employing the objectionable term ‘‘ beasts” in place of the now 
familiar mammals. 
The work is fully illustrated and pleasantly written, and is 
admirably adapted for such readers as wish to gain a general idea of 
