428 Reviews — Guide to Geology and Palceontology. 



IV. — British Museum Guide to the Department of Geology 

 and Paleontology. 4th Edition. (1886, Printed by Order 

 of the Trustees.) 



IN this neat little volume (which contains 117 pages of text and 

 49 excellent woodcuts) the amateur palaeontologist can obtain 

 for the small consideration of fourpence a concise synopsis of the 

 chief divisions of the Animal Kingdom. The greater portion of the 

 book, which has been written by Dr. Henry Woodward, F.K.S., 

 Keeper of the Department, with the aid of his valuable Assistant the 

 veteran Mr. William Davies, F.G.S., of the same Department, is 

 devoted to the Vertebrata, and since the Fossil Fishes have been 

 treated of in a separate ' Guide,' attention is mainly concentrated on the 

 Mammalia, Aves, and Eeptilia ; the Amphibia coming in for a more 

 limited notice. The Mammalia are divided into the following 12 

 orders : — Primates, Carnivora, Insectivora, Chiroptera, Dermoptera 

 (Galeopithecus), Bodentia, Ungulata, Sirenia, Cetacea, Edentata, 

 Marsupialia, and Monotremata. By far the largest space is assigned 

 to the Ungulata, which is split up into the Proboscidea, of which the 

 Museum contains the finest collection in the world ; the Hyracoidea, 

 at present unknown in the fossil state ; the Amblypoda, containing 

 the Coryphodon ; the Dinocerata, represented by a fine series of casts 

 presented by Prof. 0. C. Marsh ; the Condylar ihr a, a primitive group 

 of five-toed forms from the Eocene of N. America ; the Toxodontia, 

 which includes the peculiar Bodent-like Typotherium of S. America ; 

 the Perissodactyla ; and the Artiodactyla. We may especially notice 

 in this order the excellent figures illustrating the difference in the 

 structure of the molars of the African and Indian Elephants, and 

 also those showing the characteristic dentition of the existing Hippo- 

 potamus and of the extinct species from the Siwalik Hills of India. 

 A special feature in the Ungulate collection is the series of skulls of 

 the peculiar group of ruminants from the Pliocene of India and 

 Greece, comprising the Sivatherium, Bramatherium, HydaspitJierinm, 

 and Helladotherium, which appear to connect the modern Deer with 

 the Antelopes, and are more or less closely related to the existing 

 Giraffe. The Museum possesses the type skull of the first-named 

 genus, while of the second and third genera casts of the skulls have 

 been respectively procured through the courtesy of the Council of the 

 Boyal College of Surgeons and the Director of the Geological 

 Survey of India. Full justice is also done in the work to the splendid 

 collection of Edentata from the Post-Tertiaries of South America, 

 and of Marsupials from those of Australia ; and we are glad to 

 notice a good figure of Sir B. Owen's Tritylodon from the Secondary 

 strata of South Africa, for which we believe Dr. Woodward is in- 

 debted to the courtesy of Prof. E. D. Cope, of Philadelphia. The 

 remarkably fine skeleton of Steller's Sea-Cow (Rhytina), which was 

 recently acquired for the Museum, is also figured, and compared with 

 that of the existing Manate. Seven pages are devoted to the class 

 Aves, and include figures of Archceopteryx, Hesperornis, Odontopteryx, 

 and Dinornis. Save in the table of contents, no mention is, indeed, 

 made of the subdivisions of the class, and this is perhaps wise, 



