324 95y Ja OW Al Je WA Ss 
I.—A History or Crusraczra—Recent Mazacostraca. By the 
Rev. Tuomas R. R. Sveppine, M.A. 8vo. pp. i.—xviii. and 1-446, 
19 Plates and 82 Figures in the text. One of the Volumes of 
the International Scientific Series. (London: Kegan Paul, 
Trench, Triibner & Co., Limited, Paternoster House, Charing 
Cross Road, 1893.) Price ds. 
ae want of a handy text-book on the Crustacea has long been 
felt, and the neglect into which this great class had fallen, 
until the “Challenger” volumes made their appearance, is all the 
more readily to be understood. Grand, however, as the “‘ Challenger” 
volumes undoubtedly are, they are far too ponderous to put into one’s 
travelling bag, when going down to the sea-side for a fortnight. 
Moreover, their price, like that of rubies, is above the heads of most 
work-a-day people, who are well enough educated in Natural History 
to enjoy and appreciate a quiet sea-side resort, where, pottering 
around the shallows and rock-pools along the shore, more joy is to 
be found, than in promenading in new clothes upon the pier, to listen 
to the sweetest of bands, and watch the prettiest of the fair sex. 
Let us then eschew the gay and giddy throng, and taking the 
Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing for our guide, literally pocketing him, for he 
only measures 74 inches by 54 inches (the book of course, not his 
reverence) ; let us away to some good spot on the south, west, or east 
coast, and go a “crabbing” or a “shrimping” and see what comes 
of it. 
“Jt is not generally known that the species of Crustacea extend 
to a number of several thousands, and that many of these species 
people parts of the ocean in enormous swarms. Of some of the 
groups the general character is familiar to everyone; but there are 
others of which most persons either know nothing, or have not 
the least idea that they belong to the Crustacea. The beginner 
therefore will have provinces of a new world opened to his explora- 
tion. There is curiosity to be gratified. The sporting instinct 
will discover many an unexhausted territory. In the manners and 
customs of the creatures there is much to afford entertainment, and 
almost every new observer finds something singular to relate. ... . 
Nor need man despair of finding out something for his private 
and personal benefit while investigating the physiology of a shrimp.” 
Owing to the limited space at his command, the author has only 
been able to give us a brief account of the members of one great 
division of the Crustacea, namely, the Malacostraca or Thoracipoda 
(H. Woodw.), the highest sub-class of the whole group ; including 
the Brachyura, the Macrura, the Schizopoda, the Stomapoda, the 
Cumacea, the Isopoda, and the Amphipoda. 
Alas and alackaday! even in this volume, the author had so much 
to tell, that he came within two pages of the end before reaching 
the Amphipoda. ‘Chapters,’ the author tells us, ‘describing the 
Gammaridea, the Caprellidea, and the Hyperidea, had already been 
written, when it appeared that they overflowed the utmost space 
that could be allowed. As room for them could only be found by 
an unsatisfactory curtailment of the earlier portions of the work, 
rf 
