1895. SOME NEW BOOKS. 43 r 



Society, — contrasts unfavourably with the beautiful coloured drawing 

 of the Fossa from the pencil of the well-known animal painter, Mr. 

 Nettleship, which adorns Mr. Beddard's paper. Still, we cannot 

 expect everything for six shillings, and the wonder is what a great 

 deal the publishers have given us for that modest sum. If the editor 

 could be induced to urge Messrs. Allen to treat of the invertebrates in 

 the same liberal and thorough fashion in which the vertebrates are 

 being treated, the Naturalist's Library would be a work without which 

 no naturalist's library w^ould be complete. 



Animals of the Coast of Normandy. 



Recherches sur les faunes marines et maritimes de la Normandie. Par 

 H. Gadeau de Kerville. Pp. 184, with 2 plates and 4 woodcuts. Paris: 

 Bailliere. Price 5 francs. 



This is a careful faunistic list of the coasts of Normandy, preceded 

 by a bibliography — large in itself and terminated by an "etc." — of the 

 author's works. Maps as well as figures of animals constitute the 

 plates, while the author apparently neglects no group, but includes 

 the land vertebrates as well as the marine invertebrates. A special 

 feature of the work is an appendix upon the copepods of the region 

 by E. Canu, and upon the mites by E. L. Trouessart, in which latter 

 report the anatomy of several species is gone into at some length. 



Recent Writings on the Foraminifera. 



The Zoological Society has just published {Proceedings) an important 

 paper by Mr. Frederick Chapman " On some Foraminifera obtained 

 by the Royal Indian Marine Survey's s.s. ' Investigator ' from the 

 Arabian Sea, near the Laccadive Islands." The area from which the 

 material was obtained is sufficiently out of the path of former expedi- 

 tions to make the list useful. The samples were dredged from a 

 depth not exceeding 1,238 fathoms. Exact depths were not recorded, 

 but the temperature at 1,130 fathoms \vas 37° F., while that at the 

 surface was 78^-80° F. Two hundred and seventy-seven species are 

 noted, of which eight are new to the list of recent forms. These 

 eight were recorded by Schwager for the Kar-Nicobar Pliocene clays 

 (Novara Exped., Geol. Theil ii., 1S66), and we are now enabled^ 

 with the assistance of Brady's Monograph, to compare very closely 

 the foraminiferal fauna of these Pliocene deposits with that of the 

 present surrounding sea. An interesting point too, in Chapman's 

 paper is the canal system described in Amphistegina radiata, and this 

 and other features mentioned in the paper, strengthen the evidence 

 in favour of this form being truly referred to Amphistegina. Another 

 point of even more interest is the section oi Amphistegina showing a 

 young shell in one of the chambers. 



Dr. V. Madsen, of Copenhagen, continues his work in recording 

 occurrences of Foraminifera from the Pleistocene beds of Riigen and 

 \\'est Prussia {Med. Dansk. geol. Foren., 3) ; Dr. F. Karrer, in a further 

 paper on the Tertiary beds of the Vienna basin {yahrh. k. k. geol. 

 Reichs., 1895), carefully lists the occurrences in the various clays and 

 sands that have come under his observation ; G. A. De Amicis has 

 published {Nat. Sicil., xiv., 1895) ^ valuable paper on the Foraminifera 

 of the Pliocene beds of Bonfornello, in Sicily. One hundred and sixty- 

 three forms are enumerated, of which several are new ; one plate is 

 given. There is an interesting new Cyclammina, while Ramulina is 

 recorded for the first time from Pliocene deposits. Carlo Fornasini 

 contributes to the Memoria R. Ace. Sci. Bologna, vol. v., a continuation 



