332 Bibliographical Notice. 
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 
Our Country’s Shells, and how to know them. A Guide to the 
British Mollusca. By W.J.Gorvon. With a Coloured Illustra- 
tion of every Species and many Original Diagrams by A. Lampurt. 
London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co. 8vo. 
Pp. 152; 33 Plates. Price 6s. 
As stated in the Introduction, “‘ this book is intended as an intro- 
ductory working maaual for the collector, the object of its analytical 
tables being to enable him to name any specimen in the British 
list.” The “question i is, does the work fulfil this object? In many 
instances certainly not, the illustrations being so crude that we do 
not get even a faint idea of the species supposed to be delineated. 
The figures of some of the larger bivalves, as might be expected, 
are fairly characteristic, but the smaller forms are less successful. 
Turning to the univalyes, where accurate drawing and perspective 
are necessary, we meet with very many hopeless failures—in fact, 
such caricatures, that we are surprised the artist(!) should have 
permitted his name to appear. 
Turning to the text, we candidly confess we do not like the 
method of it. In the first place, the descriptions are very super- 
ficial and insufficient. As an example reference should be made to 
the paragraph upon Brachiopods (p. 41) and the characters which 
are supposed to differentiate the genera. ‘The reader, unless he has 
an idea of what a Brachiopod is like, will certainly not gain that 
knowledge from this work. Some of the descriptions are very 
remarkable: for instance, Capulus is said to be ‘a stout, sturdy, 
independent sort of ashell.” What does itmean? ‘‘ Tectura is like 
the roof of a house, Helcion like a lady’s bonnet”! 
Referring to the tabular scheme, we find it very difficult to make 
use of it, and much time might be wasted in trying to identity 
a shell by it. The nomenclature employed is absurdly antiquated, 
and it is quite time that the names used by Gwyn Jeffreys were 
discarded. For example, under Pleurotoma are ranged fourteen 
species, which, according to modern accepted ideas, should be 
placed in six genera ; and under Mangilia, also belonging to the 
Pleurotomide, seven species occur which belong to three ‘different 
genera, not one of them being a true Mangilia. One or two other 
examples will be sufficient. On p. 119, under Fusus, of which the 
British Isles do not produce a single species, nine species are ranged, 
which, according to modern nomenclature, should be placed in five 
distinct genera. The British Chitonide also should be ranged under 
six genera, instead of Chiton only, which is not represented in the 
British fauna. Asa picture-book this work is more or less a failure, 
and as a descriptive account it is often too brief and very puzzling 
in its arrangement. But perhaps we expect too much at the price. 
