NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 463 



facts. On perusing the pages of this new edition, no reflective 

 reader can fail to perceive both the amount of condensed information 

 which it contains, and the many new lines of investigation which it 

 suggests. We can conceive no happier treatment of the subject. 



Since our last notice of the work ('Zoologist,' 1877, p. 35) two 

 more parts have appeared, the last, recently issued, making the 

 fourth part of the second volume now in the hands of subscribers. 

 The species therein dealt with are the Rose-coloured Starling, 

 Chough, Raven, Black and Grey Crows, Rook, Daw, and Pie. 



In his treatment of the Carrion Crow and the Hooded or Grey 

 Crow, we notice a departure from the usual line adopted by 

 systematists, Prof. Newton considering that these birds "should 

 be regarded as members of a single dimorphic species, and the 

 inability to point out why this species should possess that 

 admittedly exceptional quality is no more an argument against 

 that view than is the inability to explain why a wholly black 

 plumage should prevail in nearly all the species of Corviis, while 

 in a few others the black should be varied by grey or white." We 

 have not space here to review the evidence which is adduced in 

 support of the proposed fusion of what have hitherto been usually 

 regarded as two distinct species. Suffice it to say that Professor 

 Newton, arriving at the conviction that "it is almost impossible for 

 a scientific naturalist to retain the time-honoured belief that they 

 are distinct species," unites them under the heading "Crow," and 

 traces very instructively the geographical distribution of the two 

 forms. His remarks on the " Passeres" and " Picarice" (pp. 266— 

 268) deserve attentive perusal. 



The Popular Science Review. Edited by W. S. Dallas, F.L.S., 

 Assistant Secretary of the Geological Society. 8vo, pp. 446. 

 With illustrations. London : Hardwicke and Bogue. 1878. 



We have received from the publishers of this quarterly- 

 journal the volume for 1878, addressed "To the Editor of 'The 

 Zoologist,' " and presumably therefore intended for notice in these 

 pages under the head of " Notices of New Books." Amongst the 

 zoological papers which it contains we may especially refer 

 to that by Mr. Henry Woodward on Armoured Fishes, and on 

 Volvox globator, by Mr. A. W. Bennett. Prof. Martin Duncan's 

 notes on the Ophiurans, or the Sand and Brittle Stars, and 



