54 REVIEWS. 



in the restricted sense of the word will not weary of the details which he has 

 been so bold as to include, and the hope may be expressed that the small 

 Malacological public may thus be materially augmented. 



The Collector's Manual of British Land and Freshwater Shells, by 

 Lionel E. Adams, B.A., Taylor Bros., Leeds, 8vo., 214 pp., 10 plates, 

 (8/- ; with coloured plates, 10/6.) 



One is often asked by those who are attracted to the study of our land 

 and freshwater shells, to name a book which they might obtain as a guide in 

 following the fancy that they have taken. Up to the present, it has been 

 difficult to find a work which shall possess the several necessary qualifications, 

 for the good books are mostly out of print, which also means out of date, and 

 therefore not adxisable for a beginner to have, even if he be prepared to give 

 the price that will be asked when a copy comes into the market. 



Mr. Adams' "Collector's Manual" seems "to fill a gap" so to speak, 

 and besides being up-to-date and of reasonable price, does really enable even 

 those who know nothing about the subject, to discover the name of a shell 

 unknown to them. The reviewer tested the book by giving it and two typical 

 species to an absolute novice, who found the proper generic and specific 

 names on the first trial in each case without any difficulty. 



It would not be doing justice to the book, to leave the impression that it 

 is only suitable for beginners ; it is very pleasant reading to "an old hand," 

 and the experienced collector may also find the "Manual" of considerable 

 service. One can here find an opportunity for saying a word in praise of the 

 tabular form of comparison which one is glad to see that Mr. Adams adopts 

 on a number of occasions with a large measure of success. The writers of 

 Faunas and. perhaps, more often of Floras seem to forget as a rule that the 

 poor individual who has taken upon himself to name a species of animal or 

 plant often has but that one species before him. In this case such remarks 

 as " not so large as the last " or " like the four last species but with smaller 

 flowers " only savour of the classical expression, " about as big as a lump of 

 chalk " and not being descriptions at all are just so much waste of words. It 

 must not be imagined that even Mr. Adams is absolutely definite in all 

 cases, but taken as a whole his comparisons are really helpful. 



There is a very good introduction to the Manual on methods of collecting 

 and preserving shells, but passing on to the systematic part one cannot as a 

 " lumper " (which is the name used in the preface) help thinking that the 

 space gi\en up to a lot of indefinite varieties might, with greater usefulness, 

 have been devoted to a good synonymj' of the various species. In looking 

 through this latter part one notices manj' praiseworthy emendations, though, 

 while alterations were being made, Hyaliiiia, which cannot stand for the 

 shells known until recently as Zonitcs should have been superseded by Vitrca 

 as pointed out by Mr. Smith in his presidential address to the Conchological 

 in 1890;* this last name is however used by Mr. Adams as a sub-generic title, and 

 containing rightly V. cijstallliia. Mention is made as a rule when species are 

 ovo-viviparous, and a note might well have been added to the same effect in 

 the case of Clausilia bipUcatu, one of the synonyms of which is C. vivipara, Held. 

 A glossary is given, and the pronunciation of classical names is indicated by 

 accents, but Limnaca pcreger still retain? its wrongful spelling of peregra. 

 Furthermore, it should be pointed out that the first specimens of Paludestrina 

 jciikinsi received by Mr. Smith, who named the species, were not given to him 

 by Mr. Jenkins from Plumstead, but by Mr. Walter Crouch from Becton.f 

 Again Aiiodonta anatina is still retained as a good species in spite of the 

 opinions held to the contrary by many good observers, and Avion should come 

 under Helicidae. 



The illustrations on the plates are with a few exceptions good while the 

 frontispiece which is the reproduction of a photograph of the smaller Pisidia 

 is excellent. The Distribution Tables are a useful feature of the work. 



* J. of Conch., vol. vi. (1891) p. 339. t Essex Nat., vol. iv. (1890) p. 212. 



