80 Miscellaneous. 



matters of classification brought prominently before him, although, 

 especially in the case of the birds, it would have been well if the 

 author had indicated that a very different systematic arrangement 

 of those animals was adopted by most practical ornithologists. 



Prof. Macalister's descriptions of the anatomical structure of tho 

 different great groups of animals are more precise and detailed than 

 we are accustomed to see them in English manuals ; and to these 

 he has added particulars as to the modes of development observed 

 in the different classes and orders, and even, in many cases, short 

 notes upon the habits and mode of life of the animals composing 

 these groups. In fact, by the adoption of a very concise and matter- 

 of-fact style, and by printing details in a smaller type than the main 

 facts of his work, our author has contrived to compress into his two 

 volumes an enormous amount of valuable information. Partly for 

 the sake of brevity, and partly with the view of explaining the 

 numerous technical terms which have been introduced of late years 

 into zoological literature, Prof. Macalister has employed these 

 very freely, and indeed has incurred some small amount of blame at 

 the hands of some of his critics, on account of the multitude of 

 " hard words " with which his work literally bristles on every 

 page. The blame, however, does not seem to us to rest with him, 

 but rather with the ingenious inventors of these multifarious terms, 

 who seem to imagine that not only every organ, but almost every 

 part or modification of an organ must have its distinct name. Our 

 author has endeavoured, to the best of his power, to furnish his 

 readers with a guide to these names and their interpretation ; and 

 for this, as for the excellent general statement of morphological 

 facts which he has produced, we think that students owe him a 

 debt of gratitude. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 

 The Sea-weeds of Salt Lake. By A. S. Packabd, Jun. 



The attention of the visitor to the shores of the Great Salt Lake, 

 Utah, is sometimes attracted by the small masses of Algae which 

 are seen to be suspended in the brine, and to be cast ashore in little 

 wind-rows on the sandy shores. Eour years ago, while connected 

 with Hayden's U.S. Geological Survey of the Territories, I made 

 an investigation of the life of the Great Salt Lake, especially of 

 Artemia fertilis and Ephydra (/racilis, and took pains to collect in 

 alcohol, and also dry, specimens of these Algae, as they had been 

 unnoticed by botanists and collectors so far as I am aware. It is 

 probable that these Alga? are almost the only source of food for the 

 brine-shrimp, as they are diffused through the water in nearly 

 equal abundance with the crustaceans themselves, and in no case, 

 that I could see, grow attached to any objects in the lake or on the 

 shore. The most common form (Polycystis) is a rounded, lobulated, 

 green mass which lives suspended in the water. 



