150 NOTES. 



text-books. Hitherto it has been the custom for some individual zoologist to treat 

 of the whole Animal kingdom, so far as recent forms were concerned. While this 

 was to a certain extent possible, as regards the subject, twenty or thirty years ago, 

 the wealth of work and workers during the intervening period, has made it more 

 and more evident, that for the production of a reliable work, and one which would 

 remain for some considerable time a standard treatise, the co-operation of a series of 

 specialists, each treating of his own special study, was absolutely necessary. 

 Further, it is obvious that a study of recent forms of animal life, apart from their 

 fossil relations, can only end in a very one-sided and incomplete knowledge, it is 

 therefore an excellent departure in the systematic treatment of zoology, to tind the 

 fossil forms so carefully and elaborately set forth as in the present work. Finally, 

 no pains has been spared to make the Bibliographical references of some value. 

 The treatment of references in some of the most recent zoological text-books is little 

 less than disgraceful. It is not at all uncommon to find many entirely incorrect, 

 while the rule seems to be to omit either the year of publication, the number of the 

 volume, or the scries, and to abbreviate the title of the work until unrecognisable. 



Throughout the work the style and method of treatment are admirable, and all 

 three authors are to be congratulated on the clearness and force which characterises 

 their respective contributions. Mr. Bather is responsible for the major portion of 

 the work, viz., five of the eight chapters. The first gives a general description of 

 the Phylum, and here most zoologists will regret that the morphcjlogy has been 

 treated with such brevity ; the remaining four chapters deal with the Cystidea, 

 Blastoidea, Crinoidea. and Edrioaslcroidea. Mr. (joodrich contributes the chapter 

 on the Flolothurioidea, which though brief is excellent. The two remaining 

 chapters on the Stelleroidea and Echinoidea are the work of Dr. Gregory. 



The illustrations, of which many are original, are numerous and clear. 



Accepting the present volume as typical of the series, the work worthily repre- 

 sents the Oxford School of Zoologists, whose success — one might almost say foun- 

 dation — is due in no small measure to the Editor of this comprehensive and valuable 

 Treatise.— W. E. C. 



EDITOR'S NOTES. 



We have received from Messrs. Sowerby and Fulton a set of their admirable 

 Catalogues, copies of which should be in the hands of every museum curator and 

 collector. The five catalogues extend over 100 pp., and enumerate nearly 12,000 

 species. They are well printed, in double columns, with wide margins each side, 

 so that they may be useful as check-lists. 



Reviews of two very important works are unavoidably held over till our next 

 issue viz : those of Sarasin's " Land Mollusken von Celebes," and Dr. Wilhelm 

 Pfeifter's study of the Genus Trihoniophorus. 



To the April number of "The Nautilus," Mr. Bryant Walker contributes an 

 interesting article on the Flanorbis corpidoUus of Say. He clearly shows that it is 

 entitled to rank as a valid species, and further that it is very distinct from F. trivolvis 

 on the one hand, or /'. ammon or binnaji on the other. 



