485 



NATURE 



[Sept. 5. 1878 



oceanic islands which possess no indigenous Mammals ; 

 this rule is, however, subject to exceptions among the 

 lizards, which apparently have some unknown way of 

 passing over the ocean (probably in the egg state), as 

 they are found to inhabit many islands where there are 

 neither Mammals nor snakes. Snakes entirely cease at 

 60° N. lat., and at 6,000 feet elevation in the Alps- 

 Lizards, though essentially tropical, go sometimes farther 

 north than snakes, and ascend higher, reaching 10,000 

 feet -in the Alps. Amphibians extend much farther 

 north ; Frogs to within the Arctic circle ; their eggs are 

 no doubt carried certain distances by aquatic birds, but salt 

 water is fatal to them, and deserts and oceans constitute 

 the most effectual barriers to their dispersal. 



" Further remarks on the possible mode of transport 

 of Reptiles to remote distances are made, vol. i. pp. 400- 

 401, where the author treats of the points of similarity 

 between the fauna of the Australian region and that of 

 South America. 



" Describing first in detail the faunae of the six great 

 geographical regions (Neotropical, Nearctic, Palaearctic, 

 Ethiopian, Oriental, and Australian), the author refers 

 successively to the Reptiles in their subordinate relation 

 to each fauna, and afterwards, vol. ii. pp. 372-423, collects 

 his i-esults and tabulates them under the heads of the 

 different families." 



None of the other recorders seem to make mention of 

 the work, except Dr. von Martens, who, under the head of 

 Mollusca, contents himself with the following : — 



"A, R. Wallace gives an outline of the geographical 

 distribution of the terrestrial (and freshwater) MoUusca in 

 his ' Geographical Distribution of Animals,' vol. ii. pp. 

 512-529 and 534-535, and some instances of means for 

 their passive dispersal, vol. i. p. 31." 



Now we humbly submit that no adequate idea of Mr. 

 Wallace's work is given by any one of these notices 

 separately nor by all of them combined. As we said on 

 the last occasion, we cannot find it in us to criticise the 

 recorders, though they differ greatly (and this will be 

 evident from the above extracts) in their mode of treat- 

 ment. But in a case like this the editorial hand might 

 surely be shown with advantage, and none can doubt that 

 in a few sentences Mr. Rye, had his scheme allowed it, 

 would have been able to put the reader in possession of 

 Mr. Wallace's general principles and general results, 

 while the different recorders would still be left to show 

 how those principles and those results affect their respec- 

 tive branches. 



It is, perhaps premature to say that the excellent plan 

 of giving an index to the genera and sub-genera recorded 

 as new, and of marking those names that had been 

 bestowed before, has yet had the wholesome disciplinary 

 effect that was expected of it, but there are indications 

 that such is the case. The index to last year's volume 

 showed that Ji/ty-Jiine preoccupied names, implicating 

 thirty-seven authors, had been reintroduced to zoological 

 literature in the year 1875. The present volume shows 

 the corresponding numbers to be thirty-six and twenty- 

 eight — a manifest improvement, though not quite so great 

 as at first sight appears, since in 1875 nearly a thousand 

 new genera or sub-genera were instituted, while in 1876 

 the number is only about eight hundred and severity. No 

 one has again sinned as M. Mulsant did on the last 

 occasion, but it seems strange that so learned an ento- 

 mologist as Dr. Leconte should now head the list of 

 offenders with four homonyms, and we suspect this must 



be due to a different reading of the laws of nomenclature 

 Avhich may obtain in America. Next to him come Messrs. 

 Cope, Dybowski, Jacovleff, ' Kirchenpauer, Linstow and 

 Snellen with two each, and the rest with one. The selec- 

 tion of the same name, Coptirtgis, for two apparently dis- 

 tinct genera of Erotylidce by M. Chapuis and the late ■ 

 Mr. G. R. Crotch, is curious, and the Arachnid Cory- 

 n%thrix of Dr. Koch, and the Thysanurous CoiynOthrix 

 of Herr Tullberg seem to clash with one another. Col- 

 lisions of this kind are, of course, unavoidable, but of the 

 three dozen homonyms which come into the crop of 1876, 

 a score-and-a-half might certainly have been avoided had 

 their authors but followed the advice of Mr. Rye's 

 motto : — 



" Explorate solum: sic fit via certior ultra." 

 That is to say had they consulted their Agassiz's Komen- 

 clator and used the Zoological Record. 



It remains for us to say that the present volume 

 contains an abstract of the zoological portion of more 

 than two hundred-and-fifty distinct periodicals, besides 

 separately published works, and that those journals hold 

 a good deal hardly any one requires to be told. Never- 

 theless, it may be new to some of our readers to learn 

 that papers which have appeared in the older volumes of 

 many of these periodicals are in so much request that 

 lists of them, with the proper pagination, are being 

 reprinted. This has been done in the Deutsche entomolo- 

 gische Zeitschri/t, by Herrcn von Heyden and F, Bliicher, 

 with regard to the entomological articles in the first six- 

 teen volumes of Der zoologische Gartett, the first thirteen 

 of the Verhandlun^en des naturforschenden Vereines in 

 Briinn, four volumes of the Bulletin de la S^iete des 

 Naturalistes de Moscou, and fourteen of the Archiv fiir 

 Naturgeschichte. Trusting that next year we may be 

 able to congratulate Mr. Rye and his fellow-labourers on 

 having a more promising prospect before them, we bid 

 them be of good cheer, for they have the sympathies of 

 all who know how to appreciate hard and honest work. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Annual Report and Transactions of the Plymouth Insti- 

 tution and Devon and Cornwall Natural History 

 SoJety. Vol. VI. Part II. 1877-78. (Plymouth: 

 Bredon and Son.) 



This Report seems to us to deserve more than the passing 

 notice we gave it in a recent note on the Reports of pro- 

 vincial societies. The society embraces a wide range of 

 work — science, history, archaeology — and many of the 

 papers which it publishes will compare favourably with 

 papers of a similar class read in metropolitan societies. 

 The society has a large membership, and valuable col- 

 lections in various departments. In the Report before us 

 the president, Prof. Anthony, discusses various interest- 

 ing points in connection with the doctrine of evolution, and 

 although he holds the theory to be "not proven," his dis- 

 cussion of the subject is fair. Mr. R. N. Worth, a great 

 authority on most subjects connected with Plymouth, has 

 papers on "The Palaeontology of Plymouth," "The Early 

 Commerce of Plymouth," a paper of much interest show- 

 ing considerable research, and " The Ancient Heraldry 

 of Plymouth." Mr. R. Briggs's paper on " The Hedgerows 



^ It is much to be wished that there were some recognised way of render- 

 ing Russian proper names into the languages of Western Europe. Germans, 

 Frenchmen, and Italians, each render them phonetically, and of course the 

 name is differently spelled according to the nation of the writer. Mr. Jacov- 

 leff's name thus appears also as Jakowleff, Yakovleff, and Jacovlev ! 



