NA TURE 



41 



THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1877 



BREHM'S THIERLEBEN 



Die Sciu^eihiete, von Dr. A. E. Brehm, 2 vols. ; and Die 

 Insekten, von Dr. E. Taschenberg, i vol. (Leipzig : 

 Verlag des bibliographischen Instituts, 1877.) 



I^HE three fine volumes of Natural History with the 

 above titles form part of Brehm's well-known 

 " Thierleben," a book which has had a well-merited 

 success in Germany and on the Continent generally. The 

 volumes on the mammalia, of which those under con- 

 sideration are new and enlarged editions, and which 

 contain the Quadrumana, Chiroptera, Carnivora, Insec- 

 tivora, Rodentia, Edentata, Marsupialia, and Monotremes, 

 had been well appreciated in this country on account of 

 its excellent illustrations, trustworthy anecdotes, and 

 general literary merits. The new edition issued in 1876 

 surpasses the old, for not only are the additional and 

 new drawings of first class art and most truthful, but 

 much of the context is more decidedly scientific than 

 before. Brehm, with his practical knowledge of animals, 

 especially of some important groups, and his literary 

 powers and judicious choice of illustrative anecdote, was 

 just the man to undertake a popular natural history ; 

 and the success of the very bulky attempt not only is 

 greatly to his credit, but is a testimony of the love of 

 good reading amongst the mass of his countrymen, A 

 familiarly written introduction on the structure and 

 physiology of the Mammalia occcupies the first chapter, 

 and then the Primates are considered. There are 

 two plates of sitting, standing, jumping, climbing, 

 and swinging Anthropomorpha which are exquisite, 

 and evidently carefully taken from the life. The rare 

 Troglodytes Tschiego, the Nsehiej>o mbouve anatomised 

 by Duvernay, is delineated in four attitudes, and the 

 reach of the fingers below the knee is well shown ; below 

 it are three capital chimpanzees, but none of them 

 equalling Wolf's admirable swinging chimpanzee in the 

 possession of the Zoological Society of London, The 

 orangs with their globular heads, projecting lips, and 

 hirsute arms, are drawn with great force, and three 

 gibbons, spidery and dangling, complete the show. A 

 plate of hands and feet illustrates this part of the book, 

 and the transition from the highest hand, probably that 

 of T. tschiego, for it is more symmetrical than that of 

 gorilla, to the lowest paw amongst the American mar- 

 mosets is admirably shown. The dwindling of the thumb, 

 the gradual equalisation in length of the three middle 

 fingers, and the march first on the knuckles, and then, 

 in the lower groups, on the palms are carefully demon- 

 strated. Osteological anatomy is not much cared for, 

 and therefore the skeleton of gorilla is not worthy of 

 the book ; but in the chapter on this great ape there are 

 some very remarkable plates which enable us to approach 

 the truth. 



The chimpanzee comes next — and oh ! there is such a 

 sly-faced fellow in a woodcut, utterly beyond the capacity of 

 anyBritishcutter on wood— illustrating the genial species, 

 after which, instead of before, as one would think ought to 

 have been done, comes Du Chaillu's bald Troglodyte, the 

 T. tschiego. With regard to this little-known beast, 

 Vou XVII. — No, 420 



Brehm gives some more information about its size and 

 general zoology, but he does not enlarge on the Troglo- 

 dytes aubryi of Gratiolet and Alix. A group of Entellus 

 monkeys, with their forehead tufts rather exaggerated, 

 illustrates in part the few pages on the Semnopitheci, and 

 the Macaci are finely delineated, a life-like savagery being 

 given to the Rhesus and pig-tailed kinds, Brehm's anec- 

 dotes about the baboons are first-rate, and although the 

 drawings of Hamadryas and the mandrill are slightly in 

 exaggeration of what is common, they give a capital idea 

 of the impudence of the one and the brutality of the 

 other, 



Brehm has collected all the good anecdotes and descrip- 

 tions from Humboldt, Schomburgk, Rennger, and Henfel 

 about the Howlers, and in spite of the silence of those in 

 captivity in Europe we can imagine the terrific noise of a 

 tree full of the adults oi Mycetes car ay a. Bartlett is fully and 

 deservedly quoted in illustration of the natural history of 

 the spider monkeys, and the delineations of the group are 

 fairly done, ease of position being often wanting in the 

 illustrations, however. The short-tailed Brachyures are 

 for once described and drawn not in caricature ; the 

 context is mainly from Bates, and the sketch looks like a 

 monkey and not like the distressed old man with a tail 

 like an American vegetable marrow which is usually given 

 in books. The Saimaris are introduced under the generic 

 title Pithesciurus to which, and indeed to much 0£ 

 Brehm's zoological nomenclature, we demur. The mar. 

 mosets are grouped, as by Huxley, as Arctopitheci, a name 

 given to some sloths by Gray, and there is much con- 

 fusion in introducing new generic terms to the genera 

 Hapale and Midas. The use of the term Leopithecus for 

 Hapale, of- Hapale for Midas, for instance, shows the 

 necessity for a final zoological arrangement of these small 

 monkeys. No less than 239 pages are devoted to the 

 apes and monkeys, and then the Lemuroida are com- 

 menced under the old-fashioned terms Hemipitheci or 

 Prosimii. Sonnerat, Pollen, and Peters are Brehm's 

 authorities for the natural history of this group, and he 

 does not appear to have had the advantage of studying 

 Mivart, Murie, Grandidier, and Owen ; nevertheless the 

 article is of good scientific value and of course the illus- 

 trations are superexcellent. There is, however, the old 

 jumble of synonyms for the genus Indris, and Lichanotus 

 and Propithecus are put in most unadvisedly. The queer 

 Stenops, oddly named gracilis, Galago with his ears on the 

 move and a bogie of Tarsitts spectrum — if it were as big as 

 a man how truly hobgoblin-like it would be — are excellent 

 pictures. There is nothing new, however, about the group, 

 and really more good information on anatomical and 

 physiological subjects might have been given without 

 detracting from the popular nature of the book. The 

 Chiroptera are arranged in rather an old-fashioned 

 manner, and are rather curtly treated ; and then the 

 second part of the volume opens with the Carnivora, to 

 the exclusion of the Insectivora. The lion of course 

 comes first, and although there is nothing to notice 

 particularly in the context, every one must admire Leo 

 capensis and the lioness of Leo senegaletisis, although the 

 specific determinations should sink into those of varieties. 

 The sequence of species then becomes rather strange to 

 English natural history, the puma and Felis eyra pre- 

 ceding " Tigris regalis " or Felis tigris. The clouded 



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