The Zoologist— June, 1874. 4007 



shrew {Sorex remifer), because it is a variety of the water shrew {S. 

 fodiens), every intermediate slate occurring; the great seal (Phoca 

 harbata), because the gray seal {Halicharus gryphus) has so often 

 been reported for this species in error, and because there is no 

 reliable authority for Phoca barbata having occurred on our coasts; 

 the Irish hare (Lepus hibernicus), because "not distinct as a spe- 

 cies" from the Scotch hare [Lepus variabilis); and the bottle- 

 nosed dolphin [Delphinus Tursio), also because not certainly 

 distinct as a species from the common dolphin (Z). Delphis). 



Besides these, the following domestics are very properly left out 

 in the cold, for the reasons already given : — the ferret, the domestic 

 cat, the blood-hound, the stag-hound, the fox-hound, the beagle, 

 the pointer, the setter, the spaniel, the springer, the water-dog, the 

 terrier, the Dalmatian dog, the shepherd's dog, the greyhound, the 

 Newfoundland dog, the bull-dog, the mastiff, the guinea-pig, the 

 pig, the horse, the ass, the mule, the ox, the goat, and the sheep 

 (common, Dorset, and Southdown). No naturalist but will cordially 

 approve of these omissions. Mr. Bell is evidently no dog-fancier, 

 and therefore could not feel the intense pain he inflicted on those 

 who have a spice of that proclivity, by the figures of the canine 

 race which his artist had apparently copied from those wooden 

 effigies of the canine race in some child's Noah's ark. 



I should have gone a step further than this. I should have 

 omitted the particoloured bat [Scotophilus discolor), because but 

 one specimen is supposed to have been taken, and that in a sea- 

 port; the harp seal {Phoca groenlandica), because its occurrence 

 rests on insufficient evidence ; the fallow-deer {Cervus dama), be- 

 cause a domesticated species; and Greenland right whale {Balcena 

 mysticetus) , because every notice of its occurrence in British seas 

 is vague and unsatisfactory. Indeed, much as I respect the in- 

 genuity and research of those naturalists who have made the 

 so-called " British'' Cetacea their study, I am very doubtful of the 

 propriety of ranking any cetacean as British. There is a wide 

 difference between seals and cetaceans in this respect; seals 

 cannot live without coming on laud, cetaceans live entirely in the 

 sea. Mr. Bell proceeds : — 



" On the other hand, thirteen species have been added to the list, of 

 which one only is a land animal (Sorex pygmteus), two are seals (Phoca 

 hispida and Cystophora cristata), and the remaining ten are all cetaceans. 

 These last are Balaena biscayeusis, Megaptera longimaua, Balaenoptera 



