142 Anali/tical Notices of Books. 



zygomatic arch is broad and much depressed, the whole cerebral 

 portion is considerably elongated backwards, and the nasal bones 

 advance far beyond the orbitar process of the os frontis. These 

 parts are strikingly less developed in the American IJeaver, which 

 also appears to be one-sixth smaller at the same age than the 

 living European one now in the Jardin du Roi. In their habits 

 there appears to be less to distinguish them than has hitherto 

 been supposed. The European species evinces the same aptitude 

 and ability in constructing a habitation as are exhibited by the 

 Beaver of Canada, anecdotes in proof of which are related by M. 

 F. Cuvier ; nor can our readers fail to recollect the very striking 

 exemplification of this propensity noticed at page 425 of our last 

 volume. 



In the preceding analysis we have endeavoured to embody the 

 •whole amount of the new views exhibited by the latest numbers 

 which have reached us of the folio edition of the Histoire Natu- 

 relle des Mammiferes. At the same time we received also several 

 of the earlier numbers of the quarto edition of the same work, 

 vyhich has long been promised to the public. Their appearance 

 was at once a source of gratification and of regret ; the former 

 resulting from the greater scientific value and more moderate 

 price of the new edition, and the latter from the indication which 

 it furnishes of the speedy termination of the original work. We 

 had formerly flattered ourselves that it was the interition of the 

 authors to render it, as far as the present state of the science 

 •would admit, a complete gallery of Mammiferous Animals, and it 

 was with this impression that we passed over without surprize the 

 numerous figures which they have given of the commonest species, 

 but which ought scarcely to have obtained admittance into such 

 a work, if destined to include only a fraction of the class to 

 which they belong. A work containing three hundred and sixty 

 figures, taken from the living animals, accompanied by minute 

 descriptions, and illustrated by valuable zoological observations, 

 is certainly of the highest importance ; but we cannot avoid feel- 

 ing that its bulk, and, in the same proportion, its cost and the 

 difficulty of its acquisition, has been greatly increased by the 



