578 



NATURE 



{April 2 Af, 1879 



though we have said nothing yet about the illustrations, 

 they are also worthy of commendation as really illus- 

 trating the matter in hand, and being for the most part 

 of excellent quality. But now we have the less pleasant 

 duty of finding fault. Waterton had a strong prejudice 

 against the use of scientific names. He tells us that the 

 Salempenta is excellent eating ; that you hear the voice 

 of the Hannaquoi at early dawn ; while such words as 

 Conanacouchi, Labarri, and Karabimiti are continually 

 used without any explanation of their meaning. In pur- 

 suance of his duty as editor Mr. Wood undertakes to 

 clear up all these points, and to make the path easy both 

 for the general reader and the scientific naturaUst ; and 

 he does this by means of an " Explanatory Index," which 

 occupies nearly one-third of the volume, and of which he 

 says in his preface that he believes " there is not a single 

 living creature or tree mentioned by Waterton concerning 

 which more or less information cannot be found in this 

 Index." 



The index referred to does undoubtedly contain a great 

 deal of useful and interesting information, but it is also 

 full of the most extraordinary and misleading errors, 

 which seem to show that Mr. Wood participates in his 

 old friend's contempt for scientific names, since he evi- 

 dently thinks accuracy in these names of little import- 

 ance. First we have several completely obsolete names 

 given, which the reader would in vain look for in any 

 modern book on natural history ; such as Champsa for 

 Alligator, and Arapunga instead of Chasm orhynchus as 

 the name of the bell-bird. Then we find misspelt or 

 misplaced names ; as Derolypus corona/us instead of 

 Deroptyus accipitriniis for the name of the sun-parrot, 

 and Helias eiirypyga instead of Eurypyga helias for the 

 sun-bittern. More important are the completely wrong 

 identifications of species, or the mixing together of two 

 quite different animals. The ant-thrushes are said to 

 belong to the genus Pitta, which is eastern, whereas they 

 form a peculiar American family, Formicariidae. The 

 feathers of the "wild turkey," a bird which does not 

 exist in South America, are said to be used by the Indians 

 of Demerara. The " hannaquoi," or motmot, is said to 

 be named Ortalida motmot, and the description mixes up 

 the real motmot (Momotus) and the gallinaceous Ortalida, 

 saying that the eggs are blue and that the bird can be 

 easily tamed and feeds with the poultry ; which is cer- 

 tainly not true of the motmot, of which a figure is given, 

 and which is a solitary forest bird whose eggs are white 

 and which never walks on the ground. The "kurumanni" 

 wax is said to be produced by a wild bee named Cefoxylon 

 aiidicola, which is the name of the wax-palm of the Andes. 

 The name of the "coral-snake" is given as Tortrix 

 scytale, whereas the species belongs to a quite distinct 

 family, being either an Elaps or a Plioceriisj while the 

 deadly "labarri" snake is named Elaps letnniscatus, 

 though, from the description Waterton gives, it is almost 

 certainly a Craspedocephalus. The red grosbeak, which 

 Waterton mentions as a rarity he was long in search for 

 and gives a recognisable description of, is called Cat- 

 dinalis virginianus, a bird not found in Demerara ; 

 whereas it is almost certainly the Pitylus erythromelas. 

 The little tiger-bird is said to be a Tigrisoma or tiger- 

 bittern ; but Waterton's^description shows it to be Capita 

 cayanensts, a fruit-eating bird of a totally distinct family. 



The " yawaraciris " are said to be manakins of the genus 

 Pipra ; but. the description in the text clearly points to 

 the well-known " blue creepers" of the genus Coereba. 

 The jay of Guiana described by Waterton, and which Mr. 

 Wood could not determine, is the Cyanocorax cay anus, 

 while the " grand gobe-mouche," which is omitted from 

 the index, is easily recognisable as the Querula 7-ubri- 

 collis. Of the plant identifications I am not prepared to 

 speak, except to remark that the cultivated pineapple is 

 certainly not a species of Pitcairnea. 



It is to be hoped that this delightful work will come to 

 a second edition, and admit of these blemishes being 

 removed. It would also be a great convenience if re- 

 ferences were added to the explanatory index, to avoid 

 the trouble of first going to the index proper and then 

 back to the body of the work. These, however, are 

 matters which, though important to the student who 

 keeps the book for reference, will not much affect the 

 enjoyment of the general reader ; and I can therefore 

 cordially recommend all who have not made the acquaint- 

 ance of the "Wanderer" to do so in the pages of the 

 present volume. A. R. W. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Ueber ehemalige Strandlinien in anstehendem Pels in Nor- 

 wegen. Dr. R. Lehmann. (Halle, 1879.) 



Probably no feature of Scandinavian geology has been 

 more frequently discussed than the remarkable lines of 

 terrace which have been traced along the slopes of the 

 coast, even up into the far northern fjords. Certainly no 

 stranger, even if ignorant of geology, can visit these 

 regions without being impressed by the freshness and 

 persistence of these "parallel roads," which wind in and 

 out among the intricate navigation of strait and sound, 

 islet and archipelago. From the time of Celsius down- 

 wards a continually increasing literature has been devoted 

 to this subject, and now Dr. Lehmann, of the Realschule, 

 in Halle, adds another essay to the pile. He discusses at 

 length and rejects the theories of erosion by glaciers and 

 by floating ice, and adopts that of breaker-action. But 

 probably no exclusive theory is correct. Unquestionably 

 Norway has been overridden by land-ice, scarped and 

 notched by coast-ice, as well as cut into by tides and 

 breakers. That the terraces mark lines of former sea- 

 level seems so self-evident that it hardly deserves more 

 than a simple mention of the fact. But when these lines 

 were cut out of the rock and the land was a hundred feet 

 or more lower than it is now, the coasts were doubtless 

 cumbered with ice, and while the breakers were grinding 

 out a platform from the solid rock, their work was 

 probably expedited by drifting masses of floe-ice. Dr. 

 Lehmann' s pamphlet is useful for the collected references 

 it contains to recent literature on the subject. But it is 

 needlessly voluminous. 



Die Lust an der Musik. Erklart von H. Berg. B. Behr's 

 Buchhandlung. (Berlin, 1879.) 



This is a little pamphlet which we have perused with no 

 small amount of disappointment. After a short chapter 

 treating of the origin of music, in which the author 

 merely recapitulates the theory expounded by Darwin 

 long ago, we come to Chapter II., on the development of 

 music, in which the author states very little that has not 

 before been stated by Darwin, and particularly by Helm- 

 holtz, in his " Lehre von den Tonempfindungen." The 

 principal chapter, viz., that on the effects of music, in 

 which we expected to find the explanation promised in 

 the title of the pamphlet, or at least the expression of 

 some new ideas on the subject, occupies but four small 



