998 The Zoologist — November, 1867. 



The most faithful as well as most favourable idea of this little 

 volume will be conveyed by means of a few quotations, selected as 

 bearing more particularly on Natural History. The first is a passing 

 note on the apes at Gibraltar, concerning which we are and have been 

 in a state of almost absolute ignorance. I presume my readers to be 

 acquainted with what has already appeared on the subject of these 

 apes in the 'Zoologist' (Zool. 1292 and 7985), and therefore the 

 passage cited below requires no comment. 



" The peculiarity of the Natural History of the Rock (in which alone 

 I am really interested) consists in its monkeys. A large tribe of the 

 Barbary ape (becoming as they say less and less numerous) inhabits 

 the high inaccessible crags; they seldom are seen except in severe 

 weather: in very bad weather they have been known to come down 

 and steal. I wonder how they got there ! where from ? and when ? 

 This is the only spot in the whole of Europe where they are found. 

 No doubt they have come from the south, from Africa — just as, of the 

 many insects we find common to both sides of the Mediterranean, 

 some have come from south to north ; but how and when are mysteries 

 to me, or why, when they got to Gibraltar, they did not occupy some 

 of the Sierras also ; this is a puzzle." — p. 29. 



It will, I think, appear from the next quotation that Ventnor, so 

 celebrated for its pulicine population, is altogether eclipsed by 

 Algiers, which seems a very paradise, or as the venerable Kirby would 

 have called it, "the metropolis" of fleas. 



"June 13. Our night has been one of misadventures to each of us; 

 by day we prey upon insects, by night insects prey upon us. We 

 have a splendid invention to resist their attacks, we call it a " flea-bag " 

 — simply two thin sheets sewn together round three of the sides, and 

 capable of being drawn up tight with a strong tape through a well-sewn 

 hem on the fourth ; we get into our bags, draw the string tightly 

 round the neck fasten it from the inside, and if we are cunning we are 

 safe, except on neck and face ; but there, alas ! whole squadrons of 

 light cavalry assail us, and they find their way through the creases of 

 my tightly drawn bag; they prevent sleep, they promote fever and 

 thirst, and in the morning offer themselves an inglorious prey to my 

 righteous wrath." — p. 57. 



The Zoology and Botany of San Theresa, in Brazil, seems to have 

 proved exceedingly gratifying to our travellers, and a brief quotation 

 will intervene agreeably between two less seductive paragraphs. 



" You have no idea of the gorgeous tout ensemble of the living forms 

 that we meet with on our walks ; butterflies in profusion with the 

 richest or most dainty or most quaint colours; beetles like precious 

 stones for brilliancy ; bugs and flies grotesque, and of all hues ; ferns 



