4972 Tue ZooLocist—JUNE, 1876. 
gives it to the public; the feeling of assured confidence in every statement 
he has made adds not only to the interest but to the value of the book. 
Aquarium Notes: the Octopus and the Devil-fish of Fiction and of Fact. 
By Henry Lee, F.L.S., Naturalist to the Brighton Aquarium. 
London: Chapman and Hall, 193, Piccadilly. 1875. Post 8vo, 
114 pp. letterpress and several illustrations. 
A good subject for a book and well timed, for the octopus is a nine-days’ 
wonder that must lose its attraction. It is well written, but I cannot say 
much in fayour of the illustrations; the octopus, for instance, looks as 
though it had a short clay-pipe stuck in his hat; the figures of Sepia 
Sepiola and Loligo are all conventional, and not in attitudes which those 
creatures could possibly assume, and that of the Poulpe colossal of De 
Montfort has been reproduced and repeated usque ad nauseam. However, 
Mr. Lee—having had the rare, the almost unique, advantage of seeing 
the animals he describes—is not necessitated to repeat what he reads 
with such unvarying uniformity as a mere compiler. I hope to see other 
batches of these ‘ Aquarium Notes,’ and also hope to see the matter derived 
from personal observation. 
Abstracts of the Results of a Study of the Genera Geomys and Thomomys, 
and on the Habits of Geomys troza. By Dr. Elliott Coues, of the 
United States Army. Washington. 1875. 
Some Account, Critical, Descriptive and Listorical, of Zapus Hudsonius, 
and on the Breeding Habits, Nest and Eggs of the Whitetailed 
Ptarmigan. By Dr. Elliott Coues, U.S. Army. Washington. 1875. 
The American Journal of Microscopy. Nos. 1,2 and3. New York. 1876. 
Notes on the Yueca Borer (Megathymus Yucce, Walk.). By Charles V. 
Riley, M.A., Ph.D. St. Louis. 1876. 
From the moment I received this admirable treatise I have regretted the 
apparent impracticability of transferring it bodily to the pages of the 
‘ Zoologist’ or ‘ Entomologist.’ 
The Geographical Distribution of Animals, with a Study of the Relations of 
Living and Extinct Faunas, as elucidating the past Changes of the 
Earth’s Surface. By Alfred Russel Wallace. In ‘Two Volumes, demy 
8yo, with Maps and Illustrations; Vol. I., 503 pp., Two Maps and 
Thirteen Plates; Vol. II., 607 pp., Two Maps and Seven Plates. 1876. 
These volumes exhibit a vast amount of research and study, and sooner 
or later must constitute an essential part of the library of every working 
zoologist. Epwarp Newman. 
