454 Bibliographical Notices. 



classification is generally, both in quality and amount, admirably 

 adapted to the requirements of the readers for whom the book is 



particularly intended ; while even the student will find much that 

 is useful to him. At the same time it must be borne in mind that 

 the book was never intended to serve as a student's text-book. 



The portion of the work devoted to the Invertebrata, from its much 

 greater condensation, differs considerably in character from the rest, 

 and approaches nearer to what we are accustomed to see in smaller 

 zoological manuals. Still the same careful treatment is recognizable 

 throughout, and the various authors have made the most of the 

 space at their disposal. 



Considering the number of writers engaged in the preparation of 

 the book, Dr. Duncan is to be heartily congratulated upon having 

 secured so general a harmony among them with regard to j)oints on 

 which a difference of opinion might exist ; so far as we can see, 



there is no serious divergence between any two of the numerous 

 independent articles. 



How great were the chances of divergence will be easily seen from 

 the following statement of the authors and the work done by them. 

 The editor himself has written the articles on the Apes and Monkeys, 

 the Edentata and Marsupials, the Reptiles and Amphibia, the 

 Vermes, Zoophytes, and Infusoria, besides taking part with Dr. 

 Murie in the preparation of that on the Lemurs, and writing a short 

 introductory note on the general characters and classification of the 

 Invertebrate animals. Besides the Lemurs, Dr. Murie contributes 

 the articles on the Seals, Cetaceans, and Sirenia. Mr. W. S. Dallas 

 has had assigned to him the Bats, Insectivora, and Rodentia among 

 the Mammals, the whole of the articles on Insects except the Coleo- 

 ptera and Lepidoptera, and those on Myriopoda and Arachnida. 

 Profs. "W. K. and T. J. Parker have undertaken the Carnivorous 

 Mammalia ; while what used to be called the Ungulata are worked 

 up by Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, Mr. H. W. Oakley, aud the late 

 Prof. A. H. Garrod. The Birds were consigned to Mr. Bowdler 

 Sharpe of the British Museum, and the Pishes to Prof. H. G. Seeley. 

 Several important groups of Invertebrata have already been noticed; 

 the others are disposed of as follows : — The Crustacea and Mollusca 

 are taken charge of by Dr. Henry Woodward, and the Brachiopoda 

 and Bryozoa, placed under the head of Molluscoida, by Miss Agnes 

 Crane ; the Coleoptera and Lepidoptera are treated by Mr. Bates 

 and Mr. Kirby respectively, the Echinodermata by Mr. P. Herbert 

 Carpenter, the Sponges by Prof. Sollas, and the lihizopods by Prof. 

 T. Itupert Jones. While such a list of contributors as the above 

 promises well for the quality of the articles written by them, it must 

 be confessed that, at the same time, it offers abundant openings for 

 differences of opinion. 



We have still a few words to say about the illustrations of the 

 book, which are exceedingly numerous and, for the post part, very 

 good. A considerable proportion of them, indeed, have already ap- 

 peared in French and German works ; but a great number have 

 been prepared expressly for the present book, and the sele tion 



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