i8o 



NA TURE 



\yan. 4, 1872 



of Prof. Geikie, and now appears for the first time. It 

 treats of the origin of hills, lakes, valleys, caverns, passes, 

 fjords, glaciers, river-deposits, sea-action, coral-reefs, and 

 all the many phenomena which either are themselves the 

 cause, or the effect, of geological agents. 



We have such a strong feeling against making a refer- 

 ence-book, especially one intended for the use of students, 

 too bulky to be conveniently handled, and even carried 

 about with one, as is frequently needful, that we have 

 looked most closely into the present edition to see in what 

 way it may be reduced without injury, bearing in mind 

 that it only purports to be "a Student's Manual of Geo- 

 logy." 



Candidly, then (wiihout the least disrespect to Dr. Sul- 

 livan), we think the two chapters on chemistry and mine- 

 ralogy (chapters II. and III., occupying eighty-one pages) 

 should have been omitted. For these sciences, although 

 so intimately related to, and constantly extending their 

 aid to geology, are equals in rank and importance as 

 sciences, and the student, if intending properly to master 

 them, must possess such text-books as Williamson's Stu- 

 dent's Chemistry and Dana's System of Mineralogy, 

 books of equal importance in these sciences to Lyell's 

 or Jukes's geological works. 



As might naturally be expected in a text-book framed 

 by a Geological Surveyor deeply versed in all the intri- 

 cacies of rock structures in the field, and constantly deal- 

 ing with stratigraphical questions, the book treats most 

 largely of physical geology, not, however, to the exclusion 

 of pal.eontology ; yet exalting petrological science — at 

 present in its infancy — into a far higher place than it has 

 hitherto occupied in any other similar work. We do not 

 wish it to be understood that we desire to undervalue 

 lithological characters, especially in rocks devoid of 

 organic remains ; but we find such conflicting opinions 

 prevalent among petrologists, that we are led to doubt 

 the possibility of teaching much of such a branch of 

 geological science to the student until the nomenclature 

 of the principal rocks is settled by a congress of geologists, 

 mineralogists, and chemists, or by some other authori- 

 tative body. 



If in a new edition the mineralogy is omitted, we 

 would suggest the introduction of a glossary of geological 

 and zoological terms, which the beginner would, we feel 

 sure, be very grateful to find added to the index, as an 

 addition to the valuable tables of classification contributed 

 by Prof Huxley. 



We heartily recommend the book to both intending 

 teachers and students, who will find it a most complete 

 compendium of geological science, and still one of the 

 best Manuals in our language, as it has now been brought 

 by its editor. Prof. Geikie, fairly " abreast of the onward 

 march of science." H. W. 



BREHM'S BIRD-LIFE 



lUrd-Liff. Pjy Dr. A. E. Brehm. Translated from the 

 German by H. M. Labouchere, F.Z.S , and W. Jesse, 

 C.M.Z.S. Parts I.— III. (London : Van Voorst, 1871.) 



MR. WILLIAM JESSE, at the instigation of his 

 colleague, is doing his best to make a silk purse 

 out of— well, we do not wish to be rude, so let us say. 



out of materials of which silk purses are not commonly 

 made ; for Dr. Alfred Edmund Brehm has the fatal 

 facility of being able to write endless nonsense on a sub- 

 ject which, in better hsnds, might be made truly instruc- 

 tive. He is so far from being a true naturalist that he is 

 constantly being misled, confounding analogies with 

 homologies. Take his second paragraph, as Mr. Jesse 

 translates it, and translates it very well too : — 



" Birds have much in common with mammals ; and 

 it is certain that some striking resemblances between in- 

 dividuals of both classes cannot be denied. Every im- 

 partial observer must recognise in the eagle the image of 

 the lion, or rather its true representative in the bird-world; 

 in the owl we see the cat ; the raven resembles the dog ; 

 the vulture, the hyana ; the hawk, the fox ; the parrot, the 

 monkey ; the cros-bill. the squirrel ; the wren, the mouse ; 

 the butcher-bird, the weasel ; the bustard, the stag or ante- 

 lope ; the ostrich, the camel ; the cassowary, the llama ; 

 the dipper, the water-rat ; the duck, the duck-billed platy- 

 pus ; the diver, the otter ; the auk, the seal ; and so on. 

 In spite of all these resemblances, which, after all, only 

 apply to the external aspect, the bird is always and essen- 

 tially distinct from mammals " (p. 2). 



What, then, is the use of all this ? Even the trans- 

 lator has to append a note stating that the author has 

 not truly explained what he is writing about, and, in- 

 deed, it is plain that the writer to whom such ideas as the 

 foregoing occurred has no pretension to be accounted a 

 scientific man. Their association jars upon the feelings 

 and contravenes the knowledge of any student of morpho- 

 logy. We have no wish to shock our readers even with 

 the commonest terms of German philosophy, but is it not 

 clear that to draw a parallel between a raven and a dog, 

 and between a butcher-bird and a weasel, while a fox is 

 likened to a hawk and a water-rat to a dipper, is simply a 

 subjcclive process, depending entirely on the fancy of the 

 beholder? Of what use then are any speculations on 

 " Bird Life " by such an one .'' To most men the observa- 

 tion of the aspects of nature, as exhibited under divers 

 conditions of country and climate, afford a most instruc- 

 tive education. To Dr. A. E. Brehm it seems to be other- 

 wise. He has wandered in many lands, and has seen in 

 their homes the faunas of both north and south. The 

 only effect this seems to have had upon him is to teach 

 him that he lives. " Movement is life " we read (p. 19), 

 "and life is the power of self-motion." Motion is there- 

 fore the chief characteristic of birds. " The bird is, of 

 all creatures, the most versatile in its movements ; it 

 runs, climbs, swims, di\es, and flies " (p. 2o\ He is care- 

 ful to add that all these qualities are not to be found in a 

 single species ; but may not just as much be said for the 

 insect or the mammal ; or even if the dreams of some 

 geobgists be well-founded, might they not all have been 

 found ■' combined in one creature " ? A contemporary of 

 the pterodactyls might, with some appearance of truth, 

 have applied to one of them the description of Milton's 

 fiend, who 



O'er bog, or steep, throug h strait, rough, dense, or rare, 

 With hand, head, wings, or feet, pursues Iiis way, 

 And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. 



So far as powers of locomotion go, and by " movement " 

 Dr. Brehm plainly means locomotion, the bird is hardly 

 superior to the insect or the maminal. But to return to 

 the extraordinary hypothesis that " movement is life," and 

 the converse. The most miserable savage that ever 



