80 Bibliographical Notice. 



to the Society's collection, and occupies a smaller pond by himself. 

 This species, having occurred twice in the British Islands, of course 

 finds a place in the volume before us. 



It is greatly to be regretted that the annual persecution of the 

 interesting and intelligent family of Phocidce has reduced its num- 

 bers so sensibly, even on the coasts of Scotland, that in process of 

 time its members will, in all probability, become as scarce as the wal- 

 rus. In the British Islands, as our author remarks, seals are hardly 

 plentiful enough to be of more than local importance ; but 



" It is very different in the far north, where vast herds of Ph. 

 graenlandica, Ph. barbata, and Cystophora cristata assemble in spring 

 on the ice of the Greenland and Spitzbergen seas, as well as in 

 Davis's Straits and around Newfoundland. Every spring a large 

 fleet of European vessels sails northwards, and coasts along the 

 southern margin of the ice-fields till the seals are met with, when 

 the hunters endeavour to cut off their retreat to the open water, and 

 then despatch them with heavy clubs. The numbers thus destroyed 

 are very great ; Dr. P. Brown estimates the value of those killed 

 in the Greenland seas alone at about .£116,000 (Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 1868, p. 439). It appears inevitable, as Dr. Brown remarks, that 

 such indiscriminate slaughter must soon greatly diminish the num- 

 bers of the northern seals, and eventually destroy the value of the 

 fishery." 



To many, who have never paid any attention to natural history, 

 the admission of the order Cetacea (in which are included the British 

 "Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises) into this volume would appear, at 

 first sight, erroneous and absurd ; but this subject is so lucidly ex- 

 plained in the admirable introduction to the order Cetacea, that we 

 must quote our author's own words : — 



"The outward appearance of the Cetaceans, organized as they are 

 for a permanent residence in the ocean, resembles so nearly that of 

 fishes that they have been arranged together by the ancients and by 

 the ignorant. Ray himself was not prepared to separate them ; and 

 even the example of the great Linnaeus, who, with his wonted 

 correctness and judgment, placed the "Whales in their true position, 

 was not sufficient to counterbalance the prejudices of Pennant, who 

 regarded the Cetacea as forming a division of the class of Fishes, al- 

 though he was well aware that they bring forth their young alive, 

 and nourish them by means of mammary organs, similarly con- 

 structed to those of the whole class of Mammalia. Their true posi- 

 tion, however, being established, it becomes a matter of great in- 

 terest to ascertain what relation the other organs of the body bear 

 to the corresponding ones in the other groups of this class, and by 

 what modifications of structure they are rendered subservient to a 

 mode of life so different from that of the more typical forms. A 

 brief notice of the principal points of their organization, so far as 

 they bear on these apparent anomalies, will show that the important 

 variations in form and habits are provided for by the modification of 

 the structures which are essentially the type of the class, rather 

 than by their abolition and the production of new organs." 



