March 7, 1878] 



NA TURE 



365 



POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY^ 



WE have to congratulate the pubh'shers of this fine 

 volume on its appearance, for, on a careful perusal, 

 it strikes us as very eminently fitted to supply a known 

 public want. On one or two previous occasions the same 

 firm have published large and well-illustrated works on 

 natural history, the descriptive portions of which were, to 

 say the least possible of them, not in any way up to the 

 science of the day ; but we have lately gladly witnessed 

 an infinitely more careful editing of such works on natural 

 history as have been published by Cassell and Co., and 

 the present work, so far as its descriptive portion is con- 

 cerned, can boast of being written by men so well known 

 as Duncan, Dallas, and Murie, while the illustrations, 



Fig. I.— The Negro Monkey (Seinnopitliecus iiiauriis). 



many of which are very beautiful, and the general style 

 of the get-up of the volume may well be left to tell their 

 own tale. 



The work aims at being an encyclopaedia of the Natural 

 History of the Animal Kingdom, and this, which forms its 

 first volume, contains an account of the apes and monkeys, 

 by the Editor ; of the lemurs, by Dr. Murie, and of the 

 bats and insect-eating mammals, by Mr. Dallas. May we, 

 in the interest of the success of the work, suggest, that in 

 order to complete the publication of such a work, within a 



' " Cassell's Natural History," edited by P. Martin Duncan, M.B. 

 (Lond.), F.R.S. Vol i. Illustrated. (Cassell, Fetter, and;Galpin, London, 

 Paris, and New York.) 



reasonable time, there ought to be different portions of it 

 simultaneously published. Thus there would be nothing 

 to hinder the volumes on fishes being published alongside 

 of those of the mammals, and it would be decidedly well 

 to publish those volumes that will treat of the sponges 

 and corals long before this portion of the animal kingdom 

 would in the ordinary course be reached ; but we venture 

 this only as a suggestion. 



The Editor tells us that the volume before us is meant 

 to explain the many interesting facts of the natural 

 history of animals, and that every endeavour has been 

 made to unite zoology with comparative anatomy ; the 

 aim is high and the idea is a good one, but the authors 

 sometimes fail to come up to the standard they hold 

 before them. It is perhaps not to be wondered at, for do 

 not the very words of our English language seem to fight 

 against the perfect accomplishment of such aims. Ver- 

 tebra, says Dr. Duncan, is a Latin word, which means " a 

 turning joint in the body," or, "a back bone." What 

 idea will the English youth take away of this Latin word ? 



We regret a little to see the attempt to give each animal 

 what we suppose we must call an English name, and we are 

 tempted to ask. Which is it easier to say, Troglodytes calvus 

 or Nschiegombouve ? The former is the scientific name of 

 a little-known ape ; the latter is the name we are to make 

 believe, as the young folk say, is English. It would have 

 been better if both names had been equally conspicuous, 

 then we could have taken our choice, and we can see no 

 good reason for burying the scientific name in a foot-note. 



As specimens of the style and illustrations, we have 

 selected the following : — " The Negro Monkey {Se^nnopi- 

 theais matirtis) (Fig. i) is of an intensely black colour, 

 except underneath, and at the root of the tail, where there 

 is a grey tint. The paws are long, delicate, and silky, 

 and become slightly grey on the head and back with old 

 age. Like most black things it leads a troubled life, being 

 chased and hunted, not, however, in the Javanese forests, 

 and sometimes fifty or more individuals associate together. 

 The Negro Monkeys make rude nests on trees, and are ex- 

 tremely timid, making off with great haste if they are dis- 

 turbed. A long series of generations have been chased and 

 killed by the natives of Java, and therefore the present 

 Negro Monkeys are exceedingly shy, and bolt from the face 

 of man at once. And yet, although thus timid and anxious 

 to get out of the way, they have the reputation of being 

 dangerous, and really unwittingly they may be so. On the 

 approach of men they utter loud screams, and scamper 

 off amongst the trees, helter-skelter. Now in doing this 

 they break dead branches off, and sometimes a large fruit 

 or nut comes tumbling down some score or two of feet. 

 These are supposed to be thrown by the monkeys, but 

 such is not the case. Having this bad character, the 

 ' Negroes' are cudgelled with sticks, and killed in num- 

 bers very cruelly. Their pretty fur is much prized, and 

 the chiefs of the country arrange the hunting parties, 

 treating the monkeys really as beasts of the field. The 

 skin is prepared by a simple process which the natives 

 have learned from Europeans, and they conduct it with 

 great skill. It affords a fur of a jet-black colour, covered 

 with long silky hairs, which is used by the natives and 

 Europeans there in ornamenting riding saddlery and in 

 military decoration. 



" When young they are of a brown or reddish tint, and 

 thin grey tints appear preceding the intense black ; they 

 then eat buds and shoots and tender leaves, but in adult 

 age they are fruit- consumers. When in captivity they are 

 sullen and morose, and they will remain sulky for many 

 months. This the natives know, and therefore they never 

 try to tame them or to have them in their houses." 



Another pretty illustration taken from the Proceedings 

 of the London Zoological Society, is that of the Red- 

 bellied Monkey {Cercopithecus erythrogaster), which is 

 described as follows : — 



** When living at the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's 



