Reviews—The Influence of Man on Animal Life. 45 
THE INFLUENCE OF Man on ANIMAL LIFE IN ScoTLanp: A Stupy 
IN Faunat Evotution. By James Rrrcnir, M.A., D.S8c., 
F.R.S.E., Assistant Keeper in the Natural History Department 
of the Royal Scottish Museum. pp.550. Cambridge University 
Press, 1920. Price 28s. net. 
pelts book makes a strong appeal to the naturalist and the 
archeologist, as well as to all who are interested in the early 
history and development of Scotland. The author selected 
that country as the basis of his investigations, not simply because 
it lay close at hand and afforded comparatively easy opportunity 
for study, but for the far more important reason that Northern 
Britain, when the ice-sheet which exterminated all animal life 
receded, was not subjected to disturbing factors which elsewhere have 
complicated the problems of interaction between different groups of 
organisms and their environment. Dr. Ritchie draws an instructive 
and fascinating picture of the rich Scottish fauna which existed in 
the time when post-Glacial man arrived after the old Stone Age of 
England. He describes the reindeer and elk and the other kinds of 
deer, all of gigantic size as compared with their living representatives, 
the wild horse, ox, sheep, and boar, the lynxes, bears, and wolves, 
and many other species which have long since been exterminated 
by man. He presents evidence as to the origin and history of the 
domestic animals as well as other information of interest to the 
geologist ; in particular we must mention the account he gives of 
the lower and upper forests of the peat. The book is enriched by some 
of Dr. Ritchie’s own observations, as where he describes the remains 
of the cat dug up at Dunagoil, in Bute. (Since there was a pre- 
historic settlement there, could this animal have belonged to a 
domesticated variety ?) The bones found were much larger than 
those of the modern wild-cat, and the inference is that this animal, 
like so many Scottish species, has diminished in size as man’s 
influence increased. The book contains a wealth of information 
admirably presented, and the illustrations, some of which are by 
the author himself, are of a high order of excellence. There are also 
some useful maps, showing the distribution of certain animals at 
different historical periods. 
eH A M 
Dir StamMe per WIRBELTHIERE. By O. Apet, Professor of 
Paleobiology at Vienna. xviii+914 pp., with 699 figures. ° 
Berlin and Leipzig: W. de Gruyter & Co. 1919. Price 
56 marks unbound, 62 marks bound. 
aus work is primarily a textbook of vertebrate paleontology, 
but recent forms are referred to for purposes of comparison 
and classification. The book opens with a table setting out all the 
“extinct and living families, and the classification here adopted is 
followed throughout the work. There is a short introduction 
dealing with various theoretical considerations and the meaning of 
