1898] SOME NEW BOOKS 27 
This is the more to be regretted, seeing that while the occurrence 
of birds in particular areas must, in many cases, be a mere matter 
of chance, the presence of other non-volant vertebrates, depending 
as it does on quality of soil or water, temperature, dampness or dry- 
ness, open country or forest, flatness or hilliness, will often illustrate 
genuine differences in the natural characters of the areas treated of. 
Therefore, working up from county faunas, we may hope to see in 
time a scientific classification of British faunal areas, a work which 
can only be done satisfactorily when the terrestrial vertebrates have 
been very much more studied than is now the case. 
The book before us deals with the vertebrates, other than birds, of 
the county of Essex ; and we may congratulate the Field Club of the 
county on the charming little work its vice-president, Mr Laver, has 
produced under its auspices, and may hope that so attractive a book 
may influence other Essex naturalists to take up the study of the 
groups it treats of. 
According to the author’s present knowledge Essex possesses 38 
terrestrial and 10 marine mammals, 4 reptiles, 6 amphibians, and 113 
fishes, but he expects this number to be considerably increased so far 
as the marme mammals and fish are concerned. 
More than half the book is devoted to the mammals, and Mr 
Laver has given us a number of interesting notes on the habits and 
local distribution of the smaller members of the class, as yet so 
insufficiently studied from the field-naturalist’s point of view. This 
seems to be the most original part of the work, not depending, as so 
much of the remainder necessarily does, on ‘records, but on the 
author’s personal observations, and the qualities here shown lead us 
to hope that we may see further contributions from his pen in this 
direction. 
In his nomenclature Mr Laver has wisely followed Mr Boulenger 
for the lower vertebrates ; but in the mammals, with a certain per- 
versity, he tells us that he has accepted the rather out of date Bell 
and Southwell for the seals and cetaceans, while he has consulted 
our greatest authority on those very groups, Sir W. Flower, for the 
Carnivora, Rodentia, and ungulates, with whose nomenclature Sir 
William has seldom had need to trouble himself. It is not Mr 
Laver’s fault that his book was written just before Mr Miller's: 
researches caused such a bouleversement in the nomenclature of our 
bats, but we may hope that in any future contributions from him a 
more modern system of nomenclature may be followed. 
A last word of commendation must be said for the printing, get-up, 
and arrangement of the book; while many of Mr Henry A. Cole’s 
illustrations—notably the “ Badger Earth, Epping Forest” (p. 42) 
—are quite charming. One. 
WIEDERSHEIM’S ANATOMY OF VERTEBRATES 
GRUNDRISS DER VERGLEICHENDEN ANATOMIE DER WIRBELTHIERE. By Dr Robert 
Wiedersheim. Fourth Revised Edition. Jena: G. Fischer, 1898. 8vo, pp. xxiv, 
560. Price, unbound, 14 Marks; bound, 16 Marks. 
Born students and teachers of the anatomy of vertebrates will 
welcome the fourth edition of Prof. Wiedersheim’s well-known 
“Grundriss.” Although the present volume is smaller than that 
