_—. 
April 17, 1873] 
NATURE 
461. 
not enough to warrant us in pushing the Ruminants 
between the Carnivora and the lower apes. 
The woodcuts and lithographic figures of this paper are 
not very clear, even with the aid of red ink to distinguish 
the outline of the section of a skull from its profile, when 
printed together; and there are several printers’ errors, 
eg., Hydracherus for Hydrochoerus, and what is more 
important, Aiztre is put for mzttlere (p. 27). 
Prof. Lucae modestly compares his work to that of a 
hodman, who has plenty to do when kings build their 
palaces. These royal castle-builders are of course the 
more or less adventurous theorists who construct their 
Stammbdume by help of such anatomical details as are 
here collected. All zoologists, whether, like Lamb’s 
nurse, “wise and wondrous skilled in genealogies,” or 
contented to work out the raw material which is always 
necessary, will welcome such contributions to osteology 
as the present, which forms so excellent a continuation of 
the author’s previous labours on Ragenschadel, and will 
hope that they may be still further extended in the same 
direction. P. H. PyvEe-SMITH 
SYMONDS’ RECORDS OF THE ROCKS 
Records of the Rocks. Notes on the Geology, Natural 
History, and Antiquities of North and South Wales, 
Devon, and Cornwall. By Rev. W.S. Symonds, F.G.S. 
(London : John Murray.) 
R. SYMONDS is an enthusiast, and one of the best 
type. In the intervals of his clerical work he is 
pretty sure to be found either with his hammer among 
quarries, ravines, and railway cuttings, or exploring some 
crumbled ruin or mouldered encampment, or lecturing 
volubly to a hill-side auditory on the rocks beneath their 
feet, or showing his well-known features at the sectional 
meetings of the British Association. Such have been his 
favourite pursuits for some thirty years. In the present 
volume he gives us jottings from the note-books which 
record his doings during that long period. The book is 
not a formal scientific treatise, nor does it follow any 
definite geographical sub-division in the districts de- 
scribed. An introductory chapter of a somewhat miscel- 
laneous kind is followed by ten others devoted to the 
various palzeozoic formations of Wales and the South- 
west of ingland. But the writer does not confine him- 
self to the geology of the various districts, he has much to 
say about antiquities and natural history, and says it 
pleasantly enough. Nor does he restrict his remarks to 
those parts of the country mentioned in the title-paze, 
for he has been away up even into the wilds of Suther- 
landshire, and tells about the rocks there and the alpine 
plants, and the minerals, and the old glaciers, and how 
he broke a trusty rod in fishing for salmon there.. He 
makes his way cheerily wherever he goes, and duly 
chronicles the kindness shown to him. The perfect 
honestyand candour of the writer are conspicuous through- 
out. Now andthen, however, the delight with which he 
has seen a fact for himself leads him to write as if nobody 
had seen it before him, For instance, on p. 91, he tells 
that “‘on an expedition two years ago in company with 
Captain Price, I ascertained that the quartz-rock of 
Queenaig with its tubes rests unconformably on Cam- 
brian sandstone.” A very good observation, Mr. Symonds, 
but not unknown before you and the Captain were up there- 
The illustrations, which are numerous, have been largely 
taken from Murchison’s “ Siluria ;” but we can specially 
commend some new engravings from drawings by Sir 
William Guise—admirable both for their artistic con- 
ception and geological truth. ; 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
Varrells History of British Birds, Revised by Alfred 
Newton, F.R.S., Professor of Zoology in the University 
of Cambridge. Part V. 
THE improvement which Prof. Newton’s excellent edi- 
tion of Mr. Yarrell’s work is undergoing by passing 
through the hands of its accomplished and assiduous 
editor, is evident on every page, and the care with which 
the large mass of literature on the subject of most of the 
species has been studied, must be evident to all readers. 
The chief features of this part are the following. The 
author has entered with considerable detail into the 
puzzling question of those forms or species of blue-throat, 
Ruticilla suecica, R. leucocyana and R. wolf—of which 
the first only can be said with certainty to have occurred 
in this country. The so-called “‘ Melodious Willow Wren,” 
of which two examples have been met with in the British 
Isles, is shown on Mr. Dresser’s authority to be the 
Icterine Warbler (Hyfolazs icterina), and its distinction 
from the nearly allied Polyglot Warbler (AH. folyglotta) 
is carefully pointed out, and it may be mentioned that 
these two birds have only a superficial resemblance to the 
true Willow-wrens, among which they have been errone- 
ously placed by most British authors. The evidence as 
to the occurrence of the Marsh Warbler (Acrocephalus 
palustris) in England is shown to te very defective, and 
the editor declines admitting it at present to our fauna. 
The Aquatic Warbler (A. agwaticus) on the other hand, 
seems to have been obtained some three if not four times. 
The history of that very interesting species Saddler’s 
Warbler (A. dusciniozdes) is fully given, more so than is 
done in any other work with which we are acquainted. 
It was doubtless in former days a regular, though 
never avery abundant summer visitant to the eastern 
counties of England, until the drainage of the meres and 
fens unfitted wide districts for its habitation. The first 
example of the species ever brought to the notice of 
naturalists was obtained early inthe present century by 
a party of Norfolk observers, includinz the late Sir 
William Hooker. This specimen was in 1816 shown to 
Temminck, then on a visit to London, and by him said to 
be a variety of the Reed Wren, a bird from which it may 
be fairly separated generically. Some years after, Sair 
described it from Italian examples, and it has always had 
the reputation of being a southern species. But it is to 
Englishmen that we owe nearly all the information we 
possess concerning it. Its nest and eggs were discovered 
near Cambridge in’ 1845, three years before anything was 
published about them on the Continent, and its peculiar 
habits have been chiefly described by Englishmen, from 
their own observation, whether in this country or abroad, 
The account of this species has been written ae wovo, and 
great pains has indeed been taken to bring the history of 
all the other birds treated in this part (fourteen in 
number) up to our present state of knowledge of them. 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 
[Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 
by his correspondents, No notice is taken of anonymous 
communications. ] 
Cave-deposits of Borned 
THE following letter from Mr. Everett to myself was accom: 
panied by a plan and section of one of the caves visited by him 
and partially excavated. The deposits were as follows : 
