192 JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY, VOL. I4, NO. 6, APRIL, I9I4. 



Probably no work bearing on our Land and Freshwater r^Iollusca has been more 

 urgently needed than a monograph of Pisidhim, and this Mr. B. B. Woodward has 

 at lenglli given us in his "Catalogue of the British species of Pisidiiiiii (Recent and 

 Fossil)," published under the auspices of the Trustees of the Brit. Mus. , and illus- 

 trated with 30 admirable plates. The title 'Catalogue' is hardly adequate and one 

 only gradually realises the immense amount of work that this volume represents, 

 whether from the point of view of the enormous mass of material examined, the great 

 extent of literature studied and summarised, or the amount of synonymy established. 

 The leading, one may say cardinal, feature of Mr. Woodward's work is the compre- 

 hensive use made of hinge-characters for discriminating species. We gather that 

 Bourguignat was the first to suggest the hinge as a basis for classification in 1854; 

 Clessin advocated the same point twenty years later in the "Conchylien-Cabinet," 

 but it has been left to Mr. Woodward thoroughly to inaugurate and elaborate the 

 idea, and to revolutionise the study of the genus. Fourteen recent British species 

 are catalogued and the fossil P. astartoides Sandb., while P. parvuhuii Clessin, 

 though not yet recognised in these islands, is included on the chance of its turning 

 up in quick-running water, in fine sand rather than mud. It is described as coming 

 near to P. supinum in form, but squarish rather than triangular. The fossil dis- 

 tribution of each species is most adequately dealt with, as one would expect from 

 the qualifications of the author. We offer him our heartiest congratulations on so 

 valuable a contribution to our study. 



Mr. Woodward has also recently written "The Life of the MoUusca," the 

 oliject of which is "to give a succinct account of what is known concerning the 

 life of that branch of the animal kingdom to which the Snail, the Oyster and the 

 Cuttlefish belong." Special attention is, therefore, paid (the preface says) to their 

 history, relationships and everyday life, with only general notes on the anatomy, 

 classification, distribution, etc. It is copiously illustrated with plates, most of them 

 taken from Dr. S. P. Woodward's classic " Manual of the Mollusca," and we par- 

 ticularly note a very useful one, reproduced from photos, illustrating the ' topography 

 of bivalve shells. ' The book is extremely interesting throughout and will be very 

 useful for reference — the chapter on evolution being, perhaps, the best and full of 

 suggestive points. The publishers are Messrs. Methuen & Co., and the price 6/- 

 nett. 



We welcome most cordially part 20 of Mr. J. W. Taylor's " Monograph," with 

 plates 26 (not 16, as on cover), 33, 34 and 35, thus completing the third volume. 

 Two plates which are still lacking are promised, together with the index, etc., with 

 part 21. Part 20 contains a complete monograph of Helicigoua arbustorum (L. ), 

 and appendical notes on certain of- the Zonitidie and Endodontidce, and on Helix 

 pomaiia. The text figures are as excellent as ever, and the two coloured plates — 

 one of Helix nemoralis and one of Helicigona arbustorum — are very beautiful 

 specimens of work, though the mottlings of arbustorum are naturally much harder 

 to reproduce than the bandings of nemoralis. Mr. R. Welch contributes a very 

 effective photo of the Winyats, near Castleton, in Derbj'shire, where arbustorum 

 abounds. 



