NATURE 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1904. 



THE MILLAIS BRITISH MAMMALS. 

 The Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland. By J. G. 

 Millais. Vol. i. Pp. xx + 363; illustrated. (Lon- 

 don : Longmans, Green and Co., 1904.) Price 

 6 guineas net. 



I\ two important features this magnificent work, 

 of which the first volume is now before us, may 

 lav claim to special preeminence. First, the illus- 

 trations, alike in number, size, truthfulness to nature, 

 and artistic excellence, are unrivalled; and secondly, as 

 regards the main and most important part of the sub- 

 ject, namely, the habits and local distribution of the 

 various species, the work is in no sense a compilation, 

 but the result of long and patient personal observation 

 on the part of the author. Indeed, the only matter 

 for regret connected with the work is that its price 

 puts it out of the reach of a large percentage of field 

 naturalists ; bearing in mind, however, the style in 

 which it is got up and the wealth of illustration, it is 

 difficult to see how it could have been offered to the 

 public at an appreciably lower figure. 



As an author of a work like the present, Mr. Millais 

 has one incomparable advantage over the great majority 

 — if not, indeed, over all — of his fellow-naturalists in 

 this country, namely, that he is a great painter. In 

 this double capacity of artist and naturalist he is con- 

 sequently able to present the public not only with 

 exquisite artistic pictures of the animals he describes, 

 but also with portraits which emphasise and bring into 

 prominence their special generic and specific character- 

 istics. It is, indeed, this judicious blending of the 

 artistic with the zoological aspect that confers on the 

 coloured illustrations in this work such peculiar value. 

 Too often in paintings of this description we find either 

 zoological details more or less completely sacrificed to 

 artistic effect or the former brought into undue 

 prominence to the destruction of all that is really 

 artistic and pleasing. In hitting off the happy medium 

 between these extremes, Mr. Millais and the other two 

 artists who have assisted in the work have been re- 

 markably successful. In addition to the coloured 

 pictures, there are a number of sketches, and in some 

 cases photographs, showing the various animals in 

 characteristic attitudes, in pursuit of their prev, &c., 

 which illustrate their natural history almost without 

 the necessity for letter-press. Nor is this all, for there 

 are several sketches illustrative of the mammalian life 

 of our island in prehistoric times ; and although some 

 of the details of form and colour assigned to certain 

 of the extinct forms may be open to criticism, these 

 certainly convey a good idea of the richness of this 

 fauna as compared with that of the present day. No 

 illustrations are given in the text of either skulls or 

 teeth, which is perhaps somewhat to be regretted, as 

 the latter receive mention in the text. 



.-Xs regards the amount of time and labour the author 



has devoted to the work, it may be mentioned that, 



according to a statement in the preface, he made four 



successive expeditions, during as many years, in order 



NO. 1832, VOL. 71] 



to acquire a full knowledge of the grey seal alone, and 

 that the best part of five years has been spent on the 

 task in general. 



The present volume contains the preface and intro- 

 duction to the entire work, together with the text and 

 illustrations relating to the orders Chiroptera, Insect- 

 ivora, and Carnivora exclusive of the Mustelidae. The 

 relegation of the latter to the second volume is rather 

 a pity, as it involves the intercalation of the seals and 

 walruses between the bears and the weasels, which 

 somewhat mars the systematic arrangement. The 

 author states, however, that he found it impossible to 

 complete his account of the Mustelidae in time for it 

 to come in its proper place. 



In his introduction the author takes a cursory survey 

 of the history of the British Islands during the pre- 

 historic and later Tertiary periods, and as he is not 

 a professed palaeontologist he may perhaps be allowed 

 a little license here, especially as it does not affect the 

 general subject of the work. The statement as to the 

 occurrence of ungulates in the Cretaceous (perhaps due 

 to the author having been misled by a certain South 

 .\merican writer) is, however, open to exception, while 

 the alleged first appearance of marsupials and Insect- 

 ivora at the same time is perhaps an error in the 

 opposite direction. The assertion that many types of 

 mammals have been but little altered since the (Lower) 

 Eocene might also be modified. 



While on the subject of errors, it may be mentioned 

 that the author (and quite justifiably) is very much 

 " down " on other writers on British mammals for 

 iheir various sins of omission and commission — 

 whether trivial or otherwise. He must therefore 

 take it in good part if similar slips of his own 

 are brought to notice. For example, we fanc\- Sir 

 .\rchibald Geikie will feel somewhat surprised to find 

 himself described as a distinguished palceontologist 

 and zoologist. .Again, the initials of Dr. Smith Wood- 

 ward are not A. B., neither is Dr. R. Ball (p. 238) the 

 designation of the late director of the Dublin Museum, 

 while Hermann, and not Herman, is the proper desig- 

 nation of the author of the name Sorex vulgaris (p. 

 141). Lack of classical knowledge seems to be implied 

 in the translation of Chiroptera as " hand-bearers " 

 (p. 12). More serious is the discrepancy between the 

 number of teeth in Rhinolophus as given in the text 

 (p. 23) and in the formula (p. 24), while another error 

 of the same nature occurs on p. 143, where the number 

 of premolars in the shrew is given as 2/4 instead 

 of 4/2. Exception may also be taken to the statement 

 (p. 230) that bears, as a whole, are a more primitive 

 type than dogs, and the fact that the plate of the w-alrus 

 is lettered Trichechus rosmarus while the creature is 

 described in the text as Odobaenus rosmarus is another 

 instance of want of care. 



Reverting to the merits of the volume before us, 

 attention may be directed to the value of the work 

 accomplished by Mr. Millais in regard to the bats. 

 .Although the distinctive features of the various British 

 representatives of the group can be gleaned by a 

 careful study of technical treatises, the nature of the 

 illustrations given in previous works on British 

 m;inimals rendered it very hard for the amateur (to sav 



