Bibliographical Notices. 423 



which have been recorded as inhabiting the Indian Region as limited 

 by British rule. This he divides into subregions as follows : — 

 1. Tibetan, including the Upper Indus valley and the higher Hima- 

 laya, belonging to the Paloearctic region of Sclater ; 2. Himalayan, 

 the southern slopes of the great mountains ; 3. Indian, from the 

 base of the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, taking in the north of Ceylon, 

 but omitting the Malabar coast ; 4. Malabar or Ceylonese ; 5. Bur- 

 mese ; 6. South Tenasserhn, including the Malayan Peninsula. As 

 a matter of course, any hard-and-fast lines of demarcation between 

 such subregions as these must be more or less artificial, and the 

 author is quite conscious that some of them may require modification, 

 but the mere enumeration of them serves to indicate the interesting 

 variety of forms with which it will be the privilege of the different 

 writers to deal. 



In a notice of such a book as this, any attempt at special criticism 

 would be out of place. Our object is to indicate the general nature and 

 scope of the work, and the mode in which the author has performed 

 the task he has undertaken. The idea which he has set before him is 

 evidently to produce what may be called a Manual of the Indian 

 Mammalia, giving classified descriptions of all the known species 

 with a compendious account of what has been ascertained with regard 

 to the animals described. If this definition is too modest in its 

 terms, we must ask Dr. Blanford to forgive us ; the idea we have 

 wished to convey to the reader is that of the most useful general 

 treatise that one- can wish to possess upon any group of animals, 

 and it only remains to be seen how the fundamental idea has been 

 carried out. 



The classification adopted by Dr. Blanford is almost identical with 

 that proposed by Prof. Plower, as given by that gentleman in his 

 article on the Mammalia in the now edition of the ' Encyclopsedia 

 Britannica,' At the same time he indicates in various places that 

 he is by no means a bigoted upholder of this particular system. 

 The orders, suborders, families, subfamilies, genera, and species are 

 tabulated throughout. The species are admirably described, and 

 their characters, where necessary, discussed in some detail, and in the 

 case of each the distribution is fully indicated ; while upon the habits 

 of the species we find an excellent compendium of what has been pre- 

 viously recorded (generally with quotations from the original 

 treatises), often tested and supplemented by the author's own 

 observations or by information furnished to him by reliable 

 observers. ' The synonymy of the species given seems to us some- 

 times a little scanty ; but this is a minor matter, and wiU hardly 

 detract much from the usefulness of the book. 



The illustrations, which consist of woodcuts and other blocks 

 scattered through the text, are tolerably numerous, and for the 

 most part good and characteristic. Some of the figures are borrowed 

 from the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society ' and other sources ; 

 the remainder consist of reduced copies from drawings and pub- 

 lished plates. A good many outline figures of skulls are given. 



In conclusion we must congratulate Dr. Blanford upon the pro- 



