20 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 27. 



error. Dipodomys pliillipsi does not occur in 

 the United States at all, but in southern 

 Mexico, as pointed out long ago by the re- 

 viewer ; the only members of the group in- 

 habiting the plains east of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains belong to the allied genus Perodipus. 

 "We are told that " Probably the onlj^ water 

 these creatures drink is that derived from 

 dew collected on the cactuses . ' ' The author 

 may be surprised to hear that dew does not 

 form in the American deserts where Kan- 

 garoo rats live, and that these animals, like 

 most other desert rodents, do not drink. 



Maximilian's pocket mouse {Perocjnathus 

 fasciatus), which, although unmarked, is 

 called ' the banded pocket mouse,' is said to 

 be ' characterized by the hair being coarse 

 and bristly.' On the contrarj^, the hair is 

 soft and silky ; the only species having stiff 

 hairs belong to another subgenus (CVweto- 

 dipus). 



Only one pika (Lagomys) is credited to 

 North America, though at least three are 

 recognized by American mammalogists. 



In describing the habits of rabbits it is 

 stated that all the members of the family, 

 except the European rabbit and the hispid 

 hare of northern India, ' dwell either in 

 open country among grass and other herb- 

 age, or among rocks and bushes,' forgetting 

 that the common varying hare (Lepus ameri- 

 caniis) lives in the dense coniferous forest 

 that stretches across the American conti- 

 nent from Labrador and northern New Eng- 

 land to Alaska. 



After the lumping that characterizes so 

 much of the book, particularly with respect 

 to American mammals, it is refreshing to 

 find that the author, following Lilljeborg, 

 recognizes the common hare of Europe as 

 a distinct species (under the name Lepus 

 europceus Pallas) from the mountain hare 

 (Lepus timidus Linn.) of Scandinavia and 

 the higher elevations of Euroj^e. 



It is also pleasing to note that the author 

 gives the weight of his high authority to 



the view that the Old World pangolins and 

 aard-varks probably do not properly be- 

 long among the Edentates. The name of 

 the gTcat anteater will probably have to be 

 changed from Myrmecophaga juhata to M. tri- 

 dactyla, the latter being used by Linnseus in 

 the 10th edition of the Systema Natune, 1758. 

 The chapter on the Edentates is of special 

 importance, as are those on the Cetaceans, 

 Marsupials and Monotremes. 



An important and in everj^ way praise- 

 worthy feature of the work is the brief 

 notice of extinct forms given at the end of 

 each chapter. These, coming from a man 

 of Lydekker's rank as a paleontologist, 

 may be taken as authoritative summaries 

 of the present state of knowledge of fossil 

 mammalia. 



Curious liberties have been taken, inten- 

 tionally or otherwise, in the spelling of 

 generic and specific names, as RJiithrodon- 

 tomys for Beithrodontomys, Haplondon for Ap- 

 londontia, Speotito for Speotyto, capivara for 

 capyhara, hiwdonianus for hiidsonicus, and so 

 on. By an unfortunate slip some quota- 

 tions from the well-known naturalist, J. A. 

 Allen, are attributed to the California bird 

 collector, C. A. Allen. 



The illustrations, most of which are from 

 Brehm, as explained in the previous review, 

 cannot always be taken as correct like- 

 nesses. For instance, the ' common chip- 

 munk,' on page 78, looks like Say's ground 

 squirrel with the tail of a mongoose; and 

 in the picture of prairie dogs, or prairie 

 marmots, on page 82, the two large animals 

 are certainly not Cynomys, but Arctomys, and 

 the smaller ones might be anything. The 

 muskrat and pika also are very unlike the 

 animals they are intended to represent. 



The work as a whole, while designed for 

 a popular audience and bearing marks of 

 hasty preparation, is nevertheless of much 

 value to professional naturalists, particu- 

 larly the chapters treating of groups that 

 have been personally studied by the author 



