48 The Progress of Zoology. _[Jan., 
which shall record the labours of zoologists durmg the year 1864, 
and we must confess that he has produced a work which cannot fail 
to prove of the utmost service to all zoological investigators. The 
quantity of printed scientific matter here condensed amounts in the 
aggregate to upwards of 25,000 pages, a sum-which it would be 
obviously impossible, independently of other reasons, for one man 
duly to chronicle with accuracy ; and the work before us has there- 
fore been wisely distributed among a number of gentlemen well 
known in the departments they respectively represent. Throughout 
the whole, however, the editor has aimed at unity of plan, and has 
well succeeded on the whole in securing it, although it is natural 
that a certain complexion is given to each record “according to the 
individuality of the recorders.” To secure this uniformity, howeyer, 
it was recommended that each record should commence with a 
general list of the various publications, while the second part of the 
record should be of a more special character, containing abstracts of 
important papers, more particularly of those which are difficult of 
access. Abbreviated diagnoses of new species were to be given with 
exact references and fuller descriptions when occurring in little- 
known journals. All anatomical papers were to be mentioned, but 
only those directly bearing on classification, specific definition, or 
the life history of an animal were to be more specially treated. 
Nor were sound popular works to be omitted in the category, a 
determination which we think was arrived at with. wisdom and 
liberality. 
Dr. Giinther himself undertakes the Mammalia, among which 
Dr. Gray and Mr. Flower appear to have been the most diligent 
workers in this country, and Peters and Van der Hoven among 
continental zoologists. Considerable prominence is given to Dana’s 
method of classification on the principle of cephalization of the 
body, that is, the subordination of its members and structures to 
head-uses; and the order Cetacea appears to have benefited most 
by researches during the past year. We may regard this first 
instalment by the editor as a model record, in which it is a matter 
of extreme facility to discover any point which the investigator is 
desirous of arriving at, or any paper which he may wish to consult. 
Having set so excellent an example, we shall hope to see it generally 
followed in future volumes of the ‘ Record,’ as far as the complexity 
and vastness of the material of certain departments will allow. 
Mr. Alfred Newton, to whom was confided the class Aves, has, 
we think unfortunately, departed somewhat from this simplicity, on 
which the main value of the ‘Record’ depends. In his general 
list at the commencement, instead of following a generally under- 
stood order of arrangement, he at once splits up his matter into 
regions, Palearctic, Githiopian, Indian, Australian, Nearctic, and 
Neotropical, followed by other subdivisions of descriptive Anatomy, 
