NATURE 



437 



THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 1874 



BRITISH QUADRUPEDS 

 A History of British Quadrupeds. By Thomas Bell, 

 F.R.S. Second Edition. (Van Voorst). 



THIS excellent work having originally appeared in 

 1839, a second edition in 1874 deserves more than 

 a passing notice. I n a country like our own, vi-hich has been 

 well populated for so many centuries, and in which the 

 people are increasing at a rate only possible in connec- 

 tion with vast strides in our knowledge of sanitary laws, it 

 is not difficult to form several deductions with regard to 

 the nature of the changes which must be taking place 

 in its fauna, together with their ultimate tendencies. As 

 time progresses, works on the zoology of our island, now 

 not many in number, nor large in size, must dwindle to the 

 proportions of those that might be written on a country like 

 China, in which by degrees nearly every wild species has 

 been exterminated. As there, form after form mustaie out, 

 givingplace to the increase in numbers of the one dominant 

 species, man ; till in time a history of British quadru- 

 peds will be better studied from the works of Hume and 

 Lingard than from those of White and Bell. These and 

 other considerations make it a question of more than 

 ordinary importance what stress is to be laid, in scientific 

 investigation, either for the purpose of classification or of 

 minute study on the present geographical distribution of 

 animals. On all sides we see remarks which show most 

 clearly that their authors do not fully realise the true 

 bearing of distribution. They think that it is in opposi- 

 tion to the Darwinian hypothesis ; that the camel being 

 found in Africa and Asia, whilst its only close ally, the 

 llama, is a native of the Andes, is a significant fact in 

 favour of the doctrine of "special creation," and the 

 tapirs of Sumatra and South America, only, point in the 

 same direction. But when we begin to realise how the 

 whole fauna of countries can be and have been wholly 

 changed within the extremely brief geologic time of man's 

 existence, and that most palxontological evidence is in 

 the same direction, it is clear that the stress which must 

 be laid on the present distribution of any particular form 

 is not so great as might have been imagined from the 

 results obtained by earlier workers on the subject. 



The strong predilection of our countrymen for sport 

 also makes it highly improbable that any important fresh 

 species of terrestrial mammals should be added to our 

 fauna, and so we find that Mr. Bell's second edition in- 

 cludes only a single land animal which is not to be 

 found in the first, namely, .y(i;-,-.r pigma:us, the Lesser 

 Shrew, the smallest British mammal, with a total length, 

 tail included, of less than 2?. in. The case is different, 

 however, with respect to the aquatic species which visit 

 our shores. The rapid strides made in our knowledge of 

 the Cetacea by the excellent researches of Prof. Reinhardt. 

 Flower, Turner, and others have considerably increased 

 the number of existing genera and species ; and this, 

 taken in connection with the improvement in our powers 

 of identification from the skeleton alone, has added so 

 many as ten well-authenticated species new to our fauna 

 The claims of the Greenland and Atlantic Right whales 

 are however very feeble, and only a single specimen of 

 Vol. IX. — No. 232 



Cuvier's whale, that described by Prof. Turner from 

 Shetland, is known. Amongst the Phocida;, also, a speci- 

 men obtained by Mr. J. H. Gurney,and identified by Prof. 

 Flower, adds the Ringed Seal ; whilst the Hooded Seal 

 has been twice obtained from our eastern coast. Several 

 changes have also had to be made among the Cheiroptera. 

 None have had to be added, but some have been re- 

 moved, on account of previous imperfect identification. 

 The magnified views of the nose and head of each of our 

 native species at the end of the different chapters, when 

 taken in connection with the carefully compiled tables 

 of measurements, will make it easy for anyone who 

 obtains specimens of these rarely seen animals to identify 

 them without mu ch labour. 



Mr. Bell in this edition of his work has, for several 

 reasons, had to avail himself of the assistance of other 

 workers in the same subject, for its completion. The 

 Cheiioptera and Insectivora have been carefully revised 

 and brought up to our present state of knowledge by Mr. 

 R. F. Tomes ; but the latter part of the book, including 

 all the new matter on the seals and whales, has been 

 undertaken and most efficiently executed by Mr. E. R. 

 Alston. This latter gentleman, from his acute discrimi- 

 native powers and persevering industry, has made the 

 portions of the work which it has been his good fortune to 

 superintend the standard literature of the subject on 

 which he treats. 



Throughout the book there is an ease and elegance 

 of style which is rarely found, now-a-days, in connection 

 with the frequently but too dryly stated facts of science. 

 This adds an attractiveness to the subject which implants 

 and developes an extra charm in the mind of the reader 

 leading him on, by its inherent value, to the perusal of 

 page after page, till he has finished the book, and un- 

 consciously acquired an amount of zoological information, 

 that, but for the manner in which it is presented to 

 him, he would never have taken the trouble to acquire. 

 As an example we may quote the description given of the 

 wide-spread superstitions and prejudices which exist with 

 reference to bats in general. 



We read, " That the ancient Greek and Roman poets, 

 furnished with exaggerated accounts of the animals in- 

 festing the remote regions with which their commerce or 

 their conquests had made them acquainted, should have 

 caught eagerly at those marvellous stories and descrip- 

 tions, and rendered them subservient to their fabulous 

 but highly imaginative mythology, is not wonderful ; and 

 it is more than probable that some of the Indian species 

 of bats, with their predatory habits, their multitudinous 

 numbers, their obscure and mysterious retreats, and the 

 strange combination of the character of beast and bird 

 which they were believed to possess, gave to Virgil the 

 idea, which he has so poetically worked out, of the 

 Harpies which fell upon the hastily-spread tables of his 

 hero and his companions, and polluted whilst they de- 

 voured the feast from which they had driven the affrighted 

 guests " — rather active measures for a Pteropine bat, no 

 doubt, but none the less within the hmits of human exag- 

 gerative powers. 



We notice that Mr. Alston, in naming the families of 

 the animals of which he writes, uses the termination -idre 

 on all occasions, as in Phocidae, Balaenopteridae, &c. ; 

 but in the earlier part of the work, when the generic name 



