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NATURE -° 
[JULY 31, 1902 
A QUARTETTE OF MUSEUM 
PUBLICATIONS. 
the issue of the handsome and beautifully illus- 
trated volume standing first on our list, the Trustees 
Jats 
of the British Museum have followed the lead set a | 
couple of years ago by the appearance of the “ Mono- 
graph of Christmas Island,” and have thus added a 
second work describing the fauna of a definite area to the 
long list of publications bearing their name on the title- | 
page. And there can be little doubt that this new de- 
parture will be welcomed by naturalists and by the public 
at large. In the present instance it has afforded a means 
of commemorating in a graceful and fitting manner the 
munificence and generosity of the originator of the 
Southern Cross expedition, and has likewise furnished | 
zoological science with a valuable memoir on the fauna, 
flora and petrology of the Antarctic. How valuable 
such a publication is at the present time needs no 
comment here ; and it will accordingly suffice to say that 
with the ‘Antarctic Manual” and the present volume 
Fic. 1.—Adelia Penguins on their Nests. (By permission of Sir George Newnes, Bart.) 
the scientific staff of the Dzscovery will, on their return, 
have an excellent basis for the commencement of their 
work. 
The Southern Cross expedition, we may remind our 
readers, was fitted out in 1898 by Sir George Newnes, 
regardless of expense, the zoological staff consisting of 
Messrs. N. Hanson and H. Evans. On the return of the 
vessel, Sir G. Newnes, with characteristic generosity, pre- 
sented the British Museum with the first “pick” of the 
natural history collections, desiring that the duplicates 
should be distributed among other museums, both British 
and foreign. Unhappily, Mr. Hanson did not survive to 
superintend the sorting and description of the extensive | 
collections formed during the voyage, and there was con- 
sequently considerable difficulty in identifying some of 
1 (x) “ Report on the Collections of Natural History made in the Ant- 
arctic, Regions during the Voyage of the Souther Cross.’’ Edited by 
R. B. Sharpe and F. J. Bell. Pp. ix + 344; illustrated. 
(2) ‘‘ Catalogue of the Collection of Birds’ Eggs in the British Museum 
«Natural History),” vol. ii. By E. W. Oates. Pp. xx + 400; illustrated. 
(3) ‘‘Guide to the Galleries of Mammalia in the British Museum 
(Natural History). Pp. v + 126; illustrated. 
(4) “Guide to the Coral Gallery in the British Museum (Natural 
History)."’ By R. Kirkpatrick and F. J. Bell. Pp. v +73; illustrated. 
London: Published for the Trustees of the British Museum, 1902.) 
NO. 1700, VOL. 66] 
the specimens, more especially in correlating the skulls 
with the skins of the fine series of Antarctic seals, which 
formed, perhaps, the gem of the entire collection. More- 
over, the loss of an important memoir on the white seal 
which had been drawn up with great care by Mr. Hanson 
was an irretrievable misfortune. 
| The task of describing the different portions of the 
| collection was divided among a large number of 
| specialists, the editorship of the memoirs relating to 
vertebrates being assigned by the Director of the Natural 
History Branch of the Museum to Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, 
while Mr. F. J. Bell prepared for press the invertebrate 
section of the work. Altogether the work comprises 
twenty-two separate memoirs, for which the services of 
| as many specialists were secured. 
The new forms described in the volume are not very 
| numerous. They include, however, three genera of 
| fishes, each represented by one or more new species, 
| and two specific representatives of a previously named 
_ genus. The other new forms are all invertebrates. 
In this connection it may be observed that there is a 
want of uniformity between the plans 
followed by the two editors. In the 
vertebrate section each new form is 
indicated as such in the heading, but 
this is not so in the invertebrate part. 
It is not a matter of much importance, 
but still uniformity would have been 
advisable. 
The most generally interesting sec- 
tions of the book are undoubtedly those 
treating of the seals and the penguins. 
The description of the seals was origin- 
ally undertaken by Captain Barrett- 
Hamilton, who, we believe, had to leave 
for South Africa before the volume was 
finished. Owing to the destruction of 
the labels, this gentleman was unable to 
correlate the skins with the skulls, and it 
was consequently only the latter that 
could be specifically identified with cer- 
tainty; his descriptions are, therefore, 
chiefly limited to the skull and dentition. 
At a later period it was, however, found 
possible to assign the skins to their 
respective species, and their description 
was undertaken by Mr. E. A. Wilson, 
now serving on board the D¢scovery. 
When this identification was made, that 
eminent artist Mr. H. Grénvold was 
commissioned to draw the five plates 
of seals, which were coloured by Mr. Wilson himself and 
form one of the most striking features of the book. The 
exclusively Antarctic seals are four in number, namely 
Weddell’s seal (Leptonychotes weddell’), the leopard-seal 
(Ogmorhinus leptonyx), the white seal (Lobodon carcino- 
phagus) and Ross’s seal (Ommatophoca rossi), each the 
sole representative of its genus. Ross’s seal, previously 
known only by the skull, is a most extraordinary-looking 
creature, recalling, in the curious inflation of the throat, 
a pouter-pigeon. Captain Barrett-Hamilton comments 
on the remarkable dissimilarity presented by the denti- 
tion of the four species and correlates this with the 
nature of their food. Specimens of three of the species 
| are exhibited in the Natural History Museum. 
The penguins, together with the other birds, are de- 
scribed by Dr. Bowdler Sharpe. They include three 
species, of which two, the emperor-penguin (Ap/enodytes 
forsteri) and the Adelia penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) re- 
ceive the largest share of attention. ‘Two coloured plates 
are devoted to the latter, while numerous text-figures 
| (two of which we are enabled to reproduce) illustrate 
the haunts and habits of both species. The Adelia 
| penguin is a migratory species, which congregates during 
