January io, 1895J 



NA TURE 



243 



adopted by English zoologists, including the Lemuroids 

 in the Primates, and commencing his description with I 

 the latter, from which he ascends to the higher forms, i 

 As the volumes only bear the title " Monkeys" on their 

 covers, it will perhaps be a surprise to many of our readers 

 (as it was to ourselves) to find Man included in the second | 

 volume. AUhoutjh we were aware that miny zoologists j 

 regarded Man merely as a highly-advanced monkey, yet i 

 we believe this to be the first occasion in which he has 

 been termed a " monkey " pure and simply. We trust it i 

 may be the last. | 



We do not propose to criticise any of the author's 

 views as to the limits of species or varieties, or enter into 

 any di cussion on the thorny paih of synonymy and the 

 identification of imperfectly defined species. And we 

 accordingly content ourselves with saying that his de- 

 scriptions are, for the most part, accurate and welUvvtitten, 

 and that these are enlivened, when occasion requires, 

 with interesting notes on the habits of some of the belter- 

 known species. We cannot, however, refrain from enter- 

 ing a protest against the "double-barrelled" system of 

 nomenclature (as exemplified in Tarsiiis iar^ius) the 

 author sees fit to employ — to our mind the most in- 

 elegant and absurd result of a slavish adherence to 

 priority. 



An important feature of the work is the inclusion of all 

 the knuwn lorms of fossil Primates. It would, however, 

 have been better had the author consulted a text-book of 

 geology, as we should not then have been told that while 

 Lemuroids are met wiih in the (2uercy Phosphorites and 

 the Hordwell beds of Hampshire, yet (vol. i. p. in) "in 

 strata of Olii^ocent^ and older Miocene age no Lemuroid 

 remains have come to light in Europe." We have like- 

 wise some doubt as to the alleged Ungulate affinities of 

 the Tertiary Lemuroids referred to on [he page last cited ; 

 and, indeed, it seems to us incredible that an animal 

 whose position is admittedly in the Primates, can at the 

 same time be allied to such widely different groups as 

 the Ungulates and the Insectivores, although this is stated 

 by the author to be the case. One other criticism, and 

 we have done. On p. 217 of the second volume it is 

 staled that 10 the genus Siiiiia " has been referred a molar 

 tooth found in the Pliocene strata of the Sivalik hills in 

 India. Il is considered to belong to an Orang-Utan, 

 Sim/'a satyrus" We have the best reasons for believing 

 that the specimen in question is a canine tooth, and 

 likewise that the paleontologist who made the generic 

 determination would be surprised to learn that he had 

 identified it wiih a living species. 



An especial feature of Mr. Forbes's work is the at- 

 tention paid to the geographical distribution o( the various 

 species and groups of monkeys and lemurs ; this part of 

 the subject being elaborately tieated in a series of tables 

 at the end of the second volume, supplemented by eight 

 coloured maps. The details here given will be extremely 

 valuable to all future studenis of distributional zoology. 



The series of which these volumes form a portion, ought 

 certainly to have an extensive palnmage from those who 

 are interested in natural history from a popular point of 

 view ; while at least some of the volumes— and Mr. 

 Forbes's among ihe number — will be almost indispen- 

 sable to professed students of zoology. R. L. 



* The italics are our own. 



BIRDS OF THE WA VE AND WOODLAND. 



Birds of the Wave atid Woodland. By Phil Robinson, 

 author of " Noah's Ark," &c. Illustrated by Charles 

 Whymper and others. (London : Isbister and Co., 

 1894.) 



N/T R. ROBINSON is probably the most popular 

 A living representative of a school of writers on 

 natural history, dating its origin from the publication, 

 fifty or sixty years ago, of Mr. Broderip's delightful 

 "Zoological Recreations." 



Taking birds and beasts as texts for pleasantly dis- 

 cursive essays, in which field-notes, poetry, and folk- 

 lore rub shoulders with the latest conclusions arrived at 

 by the learned in laboratories and dissecting-rooms, he 

 and his fellows bridge the gap which separates the 

 writings of such disciples of Gilbert White as the late 

 Richard Jefferies, and "a Son of the Marshes," from 

 purely scientific works. 



Anything which Mr. Robinson has to say of the animal 

 creation in fur or feather is sure to be pleasant reading ; 

 never more so than when he has at his elbow as adviser 

 on such mysteries as " the miracle of migration " the 

 young lady who wrote the preface to " Noah's Ark." A 

 book with his name on the back, and pictures by Mr. 

 Whymper between the covers, is certain to find pur- 

 chasers and readers to enjoy it. It is a typical Christmas 

 book, prettily got up, printed on good paper, " leaded " 

 with seasonable generosity, beautifully illustrated, and 

 edited, perhaps rather hurriedly, to be in time for the 

 Christmas market. We notice, for instance, that an 

 excellent sketch of partridges in a stubble field figures 

 in the list of illustrations as "grouse." Again, he tells 

 us (p. 93) that " once upon a time rooks were called 

 crows," and that " as the latter had very evil repu- 

 tations the former sufi'ered for it." He goes on 

 to give a piece of his mind to "the obstinate people 

 in the world who will not understand that it makes 

 any difference whether they use a right name or 

 a wrong one." On his very next page is a capital 

 picture of a couple of scaly-beaked rooks gossiping by 

 the nest in a rookery at bed-time, with the legend beneath, 

 " Croivs at Sundown." 



The description of the thrush carrying its snails day 

 after day to the same stone for execution, and there 

 "building up in its own way a little shell midden, like 

 those which prehistoric man has left us of oyster-shells 

 and clams to puzzle over," is in his best style. But we 

 cannot help thinking that the cases must be rather ex- 

 ceptional in which the bird, " when driven by stress of 

 weather to the sea-shore, treats the hard-shelled whelks 

 just as it tieated the garden snails " ? 



The pictures seem to us, almost without exception, 

 excellent, and are so important a part of the book that 

 " Birds of the Wave and Woodland," by Charles 

 Whymper and others, illustrated by the pen of Phil 

 Robinson, would have been a scarcely less appropriate 

 title than that which appears on the front page. 



The influence of South Kensington is apparent inmost 

 of the pictures, and the only serious doubt which suggests 

 itself on putting down a very pleasant book, is whether 

 it might not have been belter, somewhere or other, to 

 have acknowledged that many (ten at least) of the best 



NO. 



1315, VOL. 51] 



