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NATURAL SCIENCE. May, 



tasteful to us. Probably the difference above noted may even be 

 reduced to not more than five, as the data available to Mr. Boulenger 

 seem to have been insufficient in two cases. Plectroplites and Hypo- 

 plectvodes were rejected because they were supposed to have been 

 justified by " no definition " before the synonyms. It is true they 

 were not defined at the pages noted by Mr. Boulenger, but a little 

 later the differential characters were mentioned, characteristics of 

 Plectroplites having been given in 1863 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila- 

 delphia, p. 83), and some of Hypcplectvodes in 1871 (Poey, Ann. Lye. Nat. 

 Hist. N.Y., x., p. 45). It may be added that Cromileptes is rather a 

 synonym of Epinephelus than a name available for a distinct genus, 

 and was only used by Bleeker on account of his peculiar view as to 

 type-species. 



In fine, we heartily congratulate all ichthyologists and naturalists 

 generally on the publication of a work which so well embodies the 

 scientific spirit of the age in its system, the grasp of the subject as 

 manifest in the treatment of the specimens, literature, and synonymy, 

 and obedience to law as observed in the nomenclature. Naturally, 

 we must look forward with impatience for succeeding volumes. 



Theo. Gill. 



The Dog's Skull and Other Matters. 

 The Skull of the Dog. By Walter E. Collinge, F.Z.S. Pp. viii., 124, with 



11 woodcuts. London: Dulau & Co., 1S96. Price 5s. 

 This little book, with its bright red cover, bears a superficial 

 resemblance to one of Macmillan's excellent " Manuals for Students," 

 but the plagiarism, if such it be, is not carried farther ; in fact, the 

 thickness of the paper, the large type, and the width of margin are 

 rather suggestive of book-making. One of the author's reasons, as 

 stated in the preface, for selecting the skull of the dog for description, 

 is that it is " easily procurable in both adult and young stages " ; but 

 the enterprising student who provides himself with young stages will 

 derive but little assistance from the book, for there is no chapter on 

 the development of the skull and hardly more than a mention of the 

 milk dentition. 



The book is divided into five chapters, the first of which is intro- 

 ductory, while the second relates to the histology of the connective 

 tissues. The third chapter, describing the skull of the dog, occupies 

 only 44 pages out of a total of 124. The matter is reliable in the 

 main, but to describe the vomer with the bones of the olfactory capsules 

 is calculated to confuse the student when he comes to study the skull 

 of the lower Vertebrata, and to give him false ideas concerning the 

 true nature of the mammalian hard palate. Since, also, by " upper 

 jaw " in animals from the bony fishes upwards, is usually understood 

 the tooth-bearing bones, premaxilla and maxilla, the statement that 

 the palatoquadrate cartilage in the embryo dog forms the foundation 

 of the upper jaw of the adult is liable to misconstruction. As regards 

 the illustrations, which are indifferent in quality, the shape of the 

 tympanic bulla in fig. 3 calls for special censure, and it is to be 

 regretted that the dog who furnished his mandible as the model for 

 fig. 4 was not endowed with the full complement of teeth. 



In chapter iv., Windle's tables, occupying some sixteen pages, 

 of cranial and dental measurements of the different breeds of dogs 

 might surely have been omitted, especially as the student, in referring 

 to them, has to guess whether the numbers represent millimetres, 

 inches, or yards, and may, moreover, be pardoned if he fails to evolve 

 the " index," when given the total length of a skull and its zygomatic 



