912 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATVBAL HIST. SOCIETY, yd. XXVII. 

 ZOOLOGY FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN INDIA. 



BY 



W. Rae Sherriffs, M.A., D.Sc. 



We give a warm welcome to a pretentious little book lately published by 

 Macmillan & Co., the work of Dr. W. Rae Sherriffs, M.A., D.Sc, Lecturer of 

 Zoology. University College, Southampton, and formerly Professor of Zoology 

 in the University of Madras. 



It is {a) cheap, Rs. 1-8 is not dear for a book which purposes to run us through 

 the whole of Zoology. 



(h) It is very well illustrated, a fact which makes a cheap book always popular 

 to the general pubhc. 



(c) It fulfils the essential points of a useful book once given to the writer by 

 his head master : — 



" A Scientific or Historical work is never of real value unless well indexed, " and 

 at the end of the book Dr. Rae Sherriffs supplies us with a capital httle Index. 



Though written throughout in a most interesting form, a tremendous amount 

 of technicality is fitted within its 175 pages. This fact and the points we mention 

 afterwards rather incline to cramp the general trend of the work. 



Invertebrates absorb the greater part of the book — 98 pages are devoted to 

 them — 15 pages are given to worms which, in our opinion, is rather large, while only 

 66 pages are given to Vertebrates. Surelj^ the rich Fauna of Birds and Mammals 

 are deserving of more space than 66 pages in a book of 175 pages. We think 

 that it is a mistake that in a modern book on Zoology Dr. Rae Sherriffs 

 should have kept to the old system of nomenclature. In his preface he 

 does not give his reasons but simply says : " It (Zoology for Secondary 

 Schools in India) deals specially with Indian Animals and in this connection 

 notwithstanding the new nomenclature — particularly as regards snakes and 

 mammals— lately adopted in the pages of the Journal of the Bombay Natural 

 History Society, we have retained the names given in the ' Fauna of India ' 

 series.". 



This httle book in red cloth is an essentially readable work and both the stu- 

 dent and amateur will derive much benefit from its perusal. We have no hesi- 

 tation in recommending it according to its title as a very suitable text book of 

 Zoology for Secondary Schools in India. 



