532 



NATURE 



[April 7, 1887 



ment to him than a key to the classification adopted ; it 

 would probably be an improvement if, in future volumes, 

 the author would prefix to these names the terms 

 " Family," " Sub-Family," " Group," &c., so as to allow 

 the systematic value of the names themselves to be more 

 readily appreciated. The two plates accompanying the 

 volume are intended to give an idea of those structural 

 characters on which the classification used in the work is 

 based, and they also give three figures of larva; borrowed 

 from Schiodte ; it may be hoped that these latter extra- 

 ordinary forms may incite some student to continue the 

 work of investigating the earlier stages of beetles, so 

 ably pursued by the talented Dane whose recent decease 

 is still a matter of general regret amongst entomologists. 

 The structural diagrams II. and III. on Plate A are, 

 as given, far from being successful. They are described 

 as representing the under-skeleton, but, actually, one- 

 half of each of the diagrams represents the upper surface, 

 and the manner in which the two halves are connected 

 will inevitably suggest to a beginner that the structures 

 displayed are those that would be seen on removing the 

 parts covering the upper surface- 

 Mr. Fowler, as we have already stated, has taken great 

 pains to make himself acquainted v\ith the modern author- 

 ities, and to render his work as interesting as the nature 

 of the subject and its great extent will permit ; his efforts 

 in these directions will no doubt be duly appreciated, 

 and his work will, it may be hoped, find a place in the 

 libraries of all our local museums, as well as on the book- 

 shelves of the amateur. D. S. 



BRITISH STALK-EYED CRUSTACEA AND 

 SPIDERS 

 British Stalk-eyed Crustacea and Spiders. By F. A. A. 

 Skuse. (London : Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey, and 

 Co., 1886.) 



THIS is a modest little volume of 126 pages, 

 professedly written for the " tyro." We are in- 

 formed, on p. 14, that the "pages do not profess to 

 be either scientific or in the least anything beyond the 

 production of a humble admirer of Nature, and only 

 intended to put the reader on the road to the investiga- 

 tion of the creatures written about." This being so, it 

 would be unfair to judge the work from the stand-point of 

 more special treatises, and we need do no more than 

 comment upon the introduction of a somewhat antiquated 

 system of classification and of minor errors which would 

 be unpardonable in a work of greater pretensions. 



The book is a clearly stated compilation, and is, so far 

 as it goes, fairly accurate and up to date. There is, 

 manifestly, little room for originality, and the reader 

 must be prepared to find that most of the more pleasing 

 passages — those dealing with the habits of the animals 

 described — are, of necessity, quotations from earlier 

 authors, references to whose works are in all cases given 

 as footnotes. 



The subject-matter is apportioned into nine chapters 

 and an introduction, and it deals with methods and 

 accessories as fully as with the animals themselves. 

 Under the head of Development (Chapter III.) are to 

 be found the facts of morphology and physiology which 

 fall within the scope of the work. It is in this that the 



author is at his worst, and there is much here which stands 

 in need of revision. We are told, in the introduction, that 

 " the earliest known insects have been found in the 

 Devonian, so probably there also existed spiders." 

 Taking the context into consideration, it is surprising 

 that the author should thus presuppose the discovery of 

 Palaeozoic spiders, and overlook that of Silurian scor- 

 pions and cockroaches, the former so well to his purpose. 



" Big-tails," " Queer-tails," and " Little-tails " are 

 renderings of Macntra, Ajionioiira, and Brachyura as 

 unfortunate as they are unconventional. 



The illustrations are good as a whole ; some are excel- 

 lent, being faithful copies of standard figures. More 

 spiders might be advantageously delineated, and exception 

 must be taken to the wretchedly wooden drawings of 

 crustacean larvK, especially of the young lobsters (p. 27). 

 For the latter the author would do well to substitute, 

 should a second edition be demanded, the strikingly 

 truthful drawings of Sars (" Om Hummerens postem- 

 bryonale udvikling," Christiania, 1874), or, failing those, 

 Kent's figures (" International Fisheries Exhibition 

 Literature," vol. vi. " Conferences "). 



There is much truth in the author's assertion (p. 10) 

 that " everybody knows a crab. Everybody knows a 

 spider. But it is just these every-day things that people 

 know really least about ; while, on the contrary, things 

 that must be sought for in order to be seen are often most 

 commonly known." The writer is true to this tenet, and 

 his book ought, in the hands of an intelligent " tyro," to 

 be productive of good results ; while passages such as 

 that in which he describes (p. 73) the construction of the 

 spider's web are well calculated to arouse that enthusiasm 

 which he is sanguine enough to presuppose. The appre- 

 ciation of the beautiful in Nature must precede the 

 devotion to that which is more useful, and the little hand- 

 book before us, invested, as it is throughout, with a true 

 dignity of purpose, will serve as a means to this desired 

 end. 



OUR BOOK SHELF 



Catalogue of the Fossil Mammalia in the British Museum, 



(Natural History) Cromwell Road, S.IV. Part IV. 



Containing the Order Ungulata, Sub-order Proboscidea. 



By Richard Lydekker, B.A., F.G.S. (London : Printed 



by Order of the Trustees, 1886.) 

 The collection of Proboscidean remains preserved in the 

 British Museum is by far the largest in any Museum in the 

 world ; containing as it does the splendid collections 

 made in the Siwaliks of India by Sir Proby T. Cautley, 

 the unrivalled British series of mammoth remains, the 

 unique collection of pygmy-elephan* remains from Malta, 

 the series of remains of dinothcrium and mastodon, 

 from Eppelsheim, &c., and a fine collection of American 

 mastodons from the United States and from South 

 America. 



An immense collection like this, containing remains be- 

 longing to nearly all the described forms, was admirably 

 adapted for the study of transition forms, and Mr. Lydekker 

 has not been content in this Catalogue with giving mereh- 

 a detailed enumeration of the contents of the cases, but 

 has written a full account of the fiimilies, genera, and 

 most of the species of the known extinct Proboscidea. 

 In a short introduction he gives some most interesting 

 notes on the geographical and geological distribution of 

 the species. In reference to the subject of the structure 

 of the cheek-teeth Mr. Lydekker thinks that this can be 



