NOTICES OF NEW BOokKs. 357 
twelve years was supplemented by Gould’s ‘Mammals of 
Australia.’ Both these works had a direct relation to the col- 
lection in the British Museum, and for many years seemed fully 
to satisfy the needs of zoologists. The collection, however, grew 
apace like that of the other Mammalia, no opportunity being lost 
of making such additions as were required to complete the 
series, and the number of specimens appear now—after the lapse 
of some forty years—to be about trebled. Especially in the 
course of the last three or four years, during which time the 
‘Catalogue of the Marsupialia’ has been in progress, the col- 
lection, chiefly through the efforts of Mr. Thomas, has received 
many important additions. 
The specimens now enumerated amount to 1240 Marsupials 
and 64 Monotremes, making 1304 in all. Of this total, 173 are 
preserved whole in spirits, while the osteological collection of 
skeletons and skulls amounts to 703. Apart from the mere 
number of specimens, however, as the value of zoological col- 
lections depends so largely upon the possession of types, it is 
important to note that in the Marsupialia and Monotremata alone 
the British Museum possesses more type specimens than all the 
Continental Museums put together. Here are the figures:— 
British Museum, 74; Paris, 21; Leyden, 8; Genoa, 7; Christi- 
ania, 5; Vienna, 4; Berlin, 83; Munich and Copenhagen possessing 
only one each. This wealth of types is, no doubt, in a great 
measure due to the possession of the late Mr. Gould’s collection 
of Australian mammals (which contained not only a complete set 
of the types of the many species described by him, but also a 
fine series of all the Australian mammals he obtained) and the 
collections of Sir George Grey, from South Australia, and Mr. 
Ronald Gunn, from Tasmania. 
From this it will be seen that, in the preparation of the 
Catalogue before us, Mr. Thomas has had much valuable material 
upon which to work,—material which he has taken care to 
supplement by visiting the principal Continental Museums for 
the purpose of examining the types there, and other important 
specimens in these two Orders of mammals. The result is a 
very valuable Catalogue, useful not merely as an enumeration of 
what may be found in the National Museum, but because it 
embodies double synopses of the genera and species of the 
Marsupialia and Monotremata which will enable students to 
