382 NATURAL SCIENCE. May, 



which such small-sized photographs have been executed, the species 

 of ev^ery animal portrayed being recognisable at the first glance. 



Among the other chapters it is almost invidious to make a 

 selection ; but Mr. Jackson's chapter on the antelopes of East Africa, 

 from a naturalist's point of view, strikes us as particularly good ; 

 while the one on the big game of India, by Colonel Percy, must 

 certainly come in for a share of commendation. In a work like the 

 present it is not likely that a naturalist would find much that is 

 absolutely new to him ; but there are many points that are worthy 

 of his attention. In the first place, we believe it is not generally 

 known that leopards inhabit the Caucasus, but if we are to credit 

 the evidence recorded on page 43 of the second volume, it appears 

 that we must admit this to be the case. Another point of interest is 

 the opinion that the African elephant was never tamed by the 

 Carthaginians, the coins with the effigy of this animal upon them 

 having been struck long after Carthaginian times, and the animal 

 even on these being a kind of mongrel. More probably the elephants 

 which the Carthaginians undoubtedly possessed were imported Indian 

 animals. The maximum height of the African elephant recorded in 

 this work is 12 feet 2 inches, and the extraordinary numbers in which 

 these giants formerly occurred in South Africa is graphically described 

 on page 129 of the first volume. The subject of height reminds n<: 

 that a maximum of 18 feet is assigned in this work to the giraffes 

 although Mr. Bryden has assured us by letter that he has measured, 

 a specimen of ig feet. We confess that we should like further 

 information on this subject ; more especially as the apparently 

 gigantic stuffed male from South Africa in the British Museum 

 measures only 17 feet 4 inches. 



In another work Mr. Selous has rather thrown cold water on the 

 idea that the African buffalo is a ferocious animal, but in the volumes 

 before us Mr. Jackson fully supports the view that the creature is 

 decidedly an ugly customer to encounter. That the African rhino- 

 ceroses attack, as might have been supposed from the absence of 

 front teeth, with their tremendous horns, is fully demonstrated ; but it 

 is perhaps less generally known that the Asiatic species use the lower 

 tusks as their weapons of offence, in the same manner as a pig. The 

 recorded occurrence of the Sitatunga antelope from Uganda is, if we 

 mistake not, a new fact in distribution. 



The foregoing references are sufficient to indicate the highly 

 interesting nature of this most excellent treatise on Big Game, which 

 we can heartily commend, not only to the attention of the sportsmen 

 for whom it was primarily intended, but likewise to everyone 

 interested in the habits and mode of life of these largest efforts of 

 creation. 



If we were in the mood for fault-finding, which we are not, we 

 should discover but little to blame in the work as a whole. May we, 

 however, suggest to the editor that in the next edition he should 

 exercise his editorial powers a little more energetically, in order to 

 prevent discrepancies. For instance, we find on page 76 of the 

 second volume Mr. St. George Littledale lamenting that naturalists 

 have not decided on the synonymy and number of species of the big 

 Asiatic wild sheep ; while on page 291 of the same volume Colonel 

 Percy quotes at length Mr. Blanford's well-known and decisive 

 observations on this interesting subject. Again, it would be well if 

 the editor were to take into his council some zoologist of repute who 

 would aid him in the thorny subject of nomenclature ; and if this were 



