August 1, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



161 



natural size except when the skull is too large 

 for full representation on the page, when it is 

 shown reduced to a stated scale; the teeth of 

 small species are represented in well-executed 

 drawings, enlarged 5 to 10 diameters; those of 

 large species are drawn natural size. Lists of 

 " specimens examined " are given for each 

 form, with their localities, and in addition a 

 catalogue of those belonging to the British 

 Museum. 



It is to be regretted that the author found 

 the literature of European mammals " so 

 voluminous, particularly as regards local lists 

 and special notes on distribution," and so diffi- 

 cult to correlate with our present " conceptions 

 of species and local races," that he considered 

 the labor of citing it in " extended biblio- 

 graphical tables for each form recognized " 

 would be " incommensurate with the impor- 

 tance of the results." The labor would have 

 been undoubtedly very great, and the citations 

 would have considerably increased the size of 

 an already rather buUcy volume, but it is work 

 greatly to be desired, and also work that can 

 be properly done only by an author having 

 Mr. Miller's expert knowledge of the subject. 

 The citation of the more important general 

 works and papers relating to European mam- 

 mals, however, would have been an aid to stu- 

 dents desiring- information additional to the 

 technical descriptions of the present work. 



As an illustration of the author's resources 

 and method of treatment, the genus Sciurus, 

 or the arboreal squirrels, may be cited. It may 

 also serve as an illustration of the early slow 

 and recent rapid development of European 

 faunistic mammalogy. 



The describing and cataloguing of the 

 mammals of western Europe began long before 

 the labors of Linne, but he was the first to 

 give them modem systematic names. During 

 the last half of the eighteenth century about a 

 dozen different authors had described and 

 named European mammals, so that by the end 

 of that century nearly one half (90 out of 195) 

 of the forms given in the present work as full 

 species had been described and named. These 

 comprise all the leading types, those added 

 later being for the most part small or obscure 



forms, many of which would not have baen 

 given recognition in that early day even if they 

 had been known. Of these eighteenth century 

 species, Linne alone named two thirds, and 

 three other authors (Schreber. Pallas, Erx- 

 leben) named two thirds of the remainder. 



During the first 95 years of the nineteenth 

 century (1800-1894) 56 species and subspecies 

 were added by 34 authors. Up to 1895 the au- 

 thorities for the names of species and sub- 

 species, on the basis of Miller's nomenclature, 

 number 50 ; but most of the post-Linnean gen- 

 era and subgenera were founded by systema- 

 tists whose names do not often occur as de- 

 scribers of the species and subspecies here re- 

 ferred to them. 



In striking contrast with the record from 

 1758 to 1894 is the record for the next sixteen 

 years (1895-1910), during which period 170 

 forms were first described, the work of 20 au- 

 thors, of whom 8 described 133, 66 of which 

 were described by the author of the present 

 " Catalogue," 25 by Barrett-Hamilton, and 10 

 each by Cabrera and Thomas.^ A comparison 

 of the two periods — one covering a century and 

 a quarter, the other sixteen years — on the basis 

 of Miller's " Catalogue," shows that 55 per 

 cent, of the now recognized species and sub- 

 species have been described since 1894. 



We now return to the illustration afforded 

 by the genus Sciurus, represented in the " Cat- 

 alogue " by a single species, divided into 12 

 " forms " or subspecies. 



(a) Method of Treatment.— Following a 

 page and a quarter devoted to the " charac- 

 ters " and geographical distribution of the 

 family Sciurid®, including a key to the Eu- 

 ropean genera, the treatment of Sciurus oc- 

 cupies 26 pages (pp. 898-923). A half page, 

 devoted to the synonymy, geographical distri- 

 bution and characters of the genus, is fol- 

 lowed by six pages on the species Sciurus vul- 

 garis Linne, including (1) distribution, (2) 

 diagnosis, (3) external characters, (4) color, 



' Two additional species were described after 

 1910 — one in 1911 and one in 1912. Also maay 

 others were described, by various authors, during 

 the 1895-1910 period, which in the present work 

 are relegated to synonymy. 



