1893. SOME NEW BOOKS. 383 
For instance, we find it mentioned on page g that the apes obtained 
during Hanno’s “ Periplus” were probably gorillas. Now it has been 
conclusively shown that the place where Hanno touched was 
Sherboro Island, in north latitude 7° 30", or 4° 60'' north of the range 
of the gorilla! If the creatures then obtained were anthropoids at all, 
it is, therefore, evident that they must have been chimpanzees. So 
far, however, as we are aware, no one has disproved the conclusion 
reached by Mr. Winwood Reade, that the so-called ‘“ gorillas” were 
really dog-faced baboons. 
Similarly we notice on page 352 a repetition of the old legend as 
to the harmonious relations existing between the prairie-dogs and the 
burrowing owls (Sfeotito), whereas Dr. Elliot Coues, and after him 
Captain Bendire, have expressly stated that the owls certainly prey on 
the young, and probably sometimes on the adults, of the ‘“‘dogs.” We 
believe, moreover, that the idea of flying frogs (p. 103) has been proved 
to bea myth. Then, again, we are told that the European beaver 
never makes dams, although it did so in the 13th century. Has the 
author, we may ask, any reason to discredit Meyernick’s account of 
the dam-building beavers near Magdeburg in 1829 ? 
In another passage (p. 116) the author observes that when “‘ we 
descend to the Lias and Trias and Carboniferous rocks we come upon 
a great variety of’? Labyrinthodonts. Now, although one of these 
creatures occurs in the Lower Jurassic of Russia, we are unacquainted 
with any Liassic representatives of the order, so that it is, in any 
case, incorrect to speak of Labyrinthodonts as occurring ‘“‘in great 
variety ’’ when we reach that formation. Later on (p. 373) the author 
does injustice to himself in stating that chevrotains—without any 
reference to the fact of the generic distinction of the African and 
Asiatic forms—are common to the Ethiopian and Indian regions ; 
while, when giving hunting-leopards as distinctive of the latter region 
alone, he is incorrect. 
Most of the illustrations appear to have been specially executed 
for the work, but we regret that we cannot congratulate the artist on 
the result of his efforts, none of the figures being good from an 
artistic point of view, while some—especially those of the seals—are 
positively bad. It would, moreover, have been better had the artist 
paid a little more attention to the relative sizes of the animals he 
depicts. For instance, it is decidedly misleading to find the figure of 
‘‘the smallest anteater,’ on p. 256, far larger than that of ‘the 
great anteater,” two pages back; and a similar remark will apply to 
the proportions of the koala, on p. 49, compared with those of the 
thylacine, on p. 47. 
While commending the book as a readable and instructive one 
to those desirous of gaining some knowledge of vertebrate zoology, 
apart from technical details, we cannot but regret the presence of the 
errors alluded to above, which, we fear, will be accepted as gospel 
when coming from the pen of a zoologist of the high standing of 
Professor Mivart. Keele, 
A History AND DESCRIPTION OF THE MODERN Docs (SporTING DIVISION) OF 
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. By R. B. Lee, 8vo. Pp. xiv. and 584. Illus- 
trated. London: Horace Cox, 1893. 
TIL. the appearance of Darwin’s classic works on this subject, the 
study of the various groups of domestic animals, and the extraordinary 
modifications which have been produced in them by careful breeding, 
