NATURE 



393 



THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 1904. 



l^ATVRkL HISTORY. 

 Catalogue of the Library of the British Museum 



(Natural History). Vol. ii. E— K. Pp. 501-1038. 



(London : Published by Order of the Trustees, 1904.) 



Price 20s. 

 Catalogus Mammalium, tarn viventium quam 



fossilium, Quinquennale Sttpplementum. By E. L. 



Trouessart. Fasciculus i. Pp. iv + 288. (Berlin: 



Friedlander and Son, 1904.) Price 12s. 

 Our Country's .Animals and How to Know Them; a 



Guide to the Mammals, Reptiles, and .imphibians of 



Great Britain. By W. J. Gordon. Pp. viii+iS2. 



(London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and 



Co., Ltd., 1904.) Price 6s. 



THOSE responsible for the' preparation of the in- 

 valuable " Catalogue of the Library of the 

 Natural History Museum " are to be congratulated on 

 the comparatively short interval which has elapsed 

 between the issue of the preceding volume and the 

 appearance of the one before us. .About half the 

 works included in the library at the commencement 

 of the undertaking are catalogued in the two volumes 

 now before the public, so that two more volumes, with 

 the addition of a supplement, ought to complete the 

 work. Needless to say, the present volume is com- 

 piled on the lines of its predecessor. .\ feature to 

 which we may direct attention is the printing of the 

 entries in such a manner that they may, if required, be 

 cut out so as to form a card catalogue, the names of 

 authors being given in full with each entry. We 

 venture tc think, however, that it would have been 

 better had a few copies been issued with the letterpress 

 on one side only of the paper, so as to have been avail- 

 able for this purpose without the sacrifice of an extra 

 copy. Another noticeable feature is the care with which 

 the dates of publication of works issued in parts have 

 been worked out — in many instances for the first time 

 — whereby several amendments have been made in the 

 commonly accepted dates of certain technical names. 

 An instance of this is afforded in the case of the large 

 series of French voyages entered on pages 606-608 

 under the heading of France, which contain in many 

 cases original descriptions of species collected during 

 the cruises in question. The bibliographical staff of 

 the Natural History Museum deserves great credit for 

 the accuracy and fulness of detail with which this 

 work is compiled. 



With Mr. Palmer's " Index Generum " (recently 

 noticed in our columns) and Dr. Trouessart's work, 

 when complete, the student ought to have little of 

 which to complain in regard to facilities for reference 

 to tlie literature of his subject. Not that such facili- 

 ties were by any means uncalled for. During the last 

 ten years or so the number of new generic, specific, and 

 subspecific names proposed for mammals has been so 

 great, and such sweeping changes (whether for better 

 or worse we need not now pause to consider) in current 

 nomenclature have been advocated, that, to use a 

 NO. 18 I 7, \OL. 70] 



colloquial expression, naturalists of a conservative type 

 scarcely know where they are. It was, therefore, im- 

 perative that something should be done in the way of 

 codifying, and that speedily. Dr. Trouessart, with 

 characteristic energy, has stepped into the breach and 

 supplied the want. 



The second, and revised, edition of the author's well 

 known " Catalogue " was published from 1897 to 

 1899, the last part containing an appendix. To include 

 the additions and changes made since the latter date 

 in an appendix would, however, have been almost a 

 practical Impossibility, and as an entirely new edition 

 was considered out of the question, Dr. Trouessart 

 has followed a kind of middle course by the compila- 

 tion of the present " Supplement," of which the part 

 before us contains the orders Primates, Chiroptera, 

 Insectivora, and Carnivora. While every genus, 

 species, and subspecies is entered, references to the 

 original descriptions are given only in cases where the 

 terms are new, or where they replace those previously 

 in use ; in other cases reference is merely made to the 

 last edition of the " Catalogue." By this plan a vast 

 amount of space is saved, without any inconvenience 

 to the student — provided he has access to the original 

 issue. 



Dr. Trouessart professes to have brought his labours 

 only down to January, 1903, but many names pro- 

 posed later on in that year are entered. Nearly all 

 recent proposed changes in nomenclature are adopted 

 — even the transference from the squirrel-monkeys of 

 the name Callithrix to the marmosets so long known 

 as Hapale; but apparently the author will not accept 

 pre-Linnean generic names, as he retains Trichechus 

 for the walrus. Difference in spelling is considered 

 insufficient to justify the use of the same term for 

 two distinct species or groups. 



Some idea of the magnitude of the task involved in 

 the compilation of this supplement may be gleaned 

 from the fact that, in the case of the Primates alone, 

 the number of specific (exclusive of subspecific) names 

 has been increased by thirty-five since the appearance 

 of the last edition of the " Catalogue," while most of 

 the genera have been the subjects of more or less 

 important changes and revisions. -As usual, Dr. 

 Trouessart's work appears to be exceedingly accurate; 

 as to its value to students, no words of ours are 

 necessary. It is indispensable and unique. 



We fear Mr. Gordon's little volume will give rise 

 to a new " Irish grievance," for although Great 

 Britain is alone mentioned on the title-page, the Irish 

 stoat and the fossil vertebrates peculiar to the coal- 

 fields of the sister island come within its scope. 

 Neither is the title in another respect very happy, 

 although we are fain to confess it would be difficult 

 to find a single term to replace the word " animals " 

 in the sense in which it is here employed. Like most 

 other compilers of popular works of this nature, the 

 author appears to be totally ignorant of the existence 

 of that invaluable publication the " Zoological 

 Record"; at all events, we are otherwise unable to 

 account for his omission of any mention of the 

 numerous subspecies of mammals now recognised by 



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