December" 29, 19 10] 



NATURE 



275 



with automobiles has been revolutionised. So far as 

 I am capable of judging', these articles, as well as those 

 devoted to archer}-, athletics, cricket, &c., are 

 ihoroughly up to date, and, like the rest of the volume, 



idmirably illustrated. 



On turning, however, to the articles on big game 

 md big game shooting, I notice that there is a con- 

 -iderable amount of repetition and overlapping, while, 



orse still, one and the saine species of animal is in 

 -everal instances mentioned in different places und^:- 

 different names. In the case of the 

 reindeer or caribou, for example, the 

 -cientific name of the species is given 



n p. 264 as Rangifer tarandus, on 

 -.'. 399 as C. ( — Cerz'iis) tarandus, and 



n p. 401 as Tarandus rangifer. Take 



s^ain the case of the Indian gazelle 



Gazella bennetti), which is figured, 

 quite unnecessarily, in three different 

 places. The first figure, p. 75, bears 



!;e legend " Ravine Deer " — a common 



jortsman's name — while it is alluded 



1 in the text as the " Chinkara " ; on 

 256 the illustration is lettered 



Indian Gazelle," while on p. 412 the 



tme figure reappears under the desig- 

 ■ .ation "Chickara." Again, the West 

 African dwarf buffalo is designated Bos 

 caffer nanus on p. 248, and Bos putnilus 



np. 319. 



These eccentricities in nomenclature 

 are, however, by no means all the de- 

 fects in the articles under considera- 

 tion. The chita, or hunting leopard, 

 for example, in addition to being stvled 

 Cynaelurus jubatus on p. 408, and Felis 

 jubata two pages later, is stated on the 

 former to be nearly related to the 

 leopard; and on p. 410, the Indian 

 spotted deer, or chital, is asserted to be 

 a near ally of the fallow deer, despite 

 the fact that the one wears its spotted 

 livery all the year round and the other 

 only In summer. Worse than all, we 

 find on p. 250 a photograph described 

 as that of the western tur {Capra 

 caucasica), whereas it is really of the 

 same individual as that depicted on 

 p. 252, under its proper title of tahr 

 {Hemitragus jemlaicus). 



An error of another kind appears in 



le first article under the heading bison, 



hich is devoted solely to the American 



■presentative of the group, whereas it 

 -iiould have commenced with the 

 ■-uropean species, which is the bison 

 ~ ir excellence, the American animal 



aving only a kind of courtesy right to 



ne title. 

 These and others errors are due, in 



he first place, to what I regard as the 



ernicious principle of putting men of 

 lifferent opinions, and in many cases 



■ very different degrees of knowledge, 



> write on the same subject or 

 branches thereof, and in the second 

 place to the lack of a competent editor to revise and 

 correlate the zoological articles, and thus prevent use- 

 less and irritating repetition. 



While fully appreciating the value of the work as 

 a whole — which is really a wonderful enterprise — the 

 above and other errors in the big game portion are 

 Tiuch to be deplored, more especially as the articles 



ire intended for the use of those who are not 

 professed naturalists. R, L. 



NO. 2148, VOL. 85] 



M 



WESTERN CHINA."^ 

 R. ARCHIBALD LITTLE'S work, the result 



forms a valuable contribution to our knowledge of 

 that vast region. The volume before us is invested 

 with special interest, as it is the remnant of the 

 labour to which he devoted the greater part of his 

 life. He was at heart an explorer, although in busi- 

 ""-^ as a merchant in Chung-keng, much of his time 



Fig. I.— The Hua 

 in-China, unfort 



Hua Lo at Wuchang, opposite Hankow : one of the most beautiful pavilioos 

 unately destroyed by fire. From " Gleanings from Fifty Years in China." 



was spent in difficult and dangerous expeditions, 

 which he carried out so successfully as to establish 

 his fame, not only as an intrepid traveller, but as an 

 authority on the western provinces of the empire. He 

 was an exception to the majority of the foreign mer- 

 chants one meets in China in his having acquired a 



1 " Gleanings from Fifty Years in China." By the late .4. Little Re- 

 vised by Mrs. A. Little. Pp. yvii + 330. (London : Sampson Low, Marston 

 and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 7^. 6d. net. 



