The Progress of Zoology. 253 



accomplished with, so much, skill and good taste, that it acquires 

 a character of originality both by its purpose and its merit.* 

 The British fauna is a part of the fauna of Europe, just as the 

 fauna of a county is part of the fauna of the country at large : 

 and Lord Clermont' s work will tend to widen the range 

 of the British naturalist, by showing that many of his sub- 

 jects have an extensive area, and must be studied under all 

 their several geographical conditions for a full knowledge of 

 their habits and physiology. Dr. Bree,f though working in 

 another direction, points to the same lesson. By registering 

 the birds of Europe not found in Britain, he enables us to 

 estimate the close connection by reason of community of 

 species which exists between the aves of Britain and the Con- 

 tinent, so that we can lay claim to but very few as exclusively 

 British. 



The great scientific question of the day is, What is a 

 species ? We shall not attempt to offer a reply. Mr. Darwin 

 has made as great an agitation in the world of science as the 

 Essays and Reviews have in theology, but there is no process of 

 excommunication known in the zoological establishment ; and 

 those who differ from Mr. Darwin can heartily thank him for 

 having put their accepted formulae to a severe test, and opened 

 an almost new channel of inquiry. If there is a vagueness 

 about the characters of species, there is still more about the 

 meaning of varieties. Etas it never occurred to the reader 

 that every animal is, in a certain sense, a variety ; that every 

 individual creature has a distinctive character of its own ; so 

 that our so-called varieties are such only by reason of a greater 

 departure from type than usual, the fact of departure being 

 itself so universal that type is almost undis cover able. Sir 

 Emerson Tennent says every herd of elephants in Ceylon has 

 some distinctive features; in one herd the individuals are 

 affected with red spots on the skin, in another the tushes are 

 more fully developed; and what is more remarkable, as bearing 

 on this question of species, it appears that every separate herd 

 is a separate family, bound by ties of consanguinity, so that 

 we may suspect — the case not being proved — that the dis- 

 tinctive family characters, which give every herd some peculi- 

 arity of form or colour, is the result of breeding in and in, which 

 every nockniaster and poultry-keeper knows to be remark- 

 ably productive of what are called permanent varieties. The 

 African elephant appears to be equally subject to variety as 

 those of India and Ceylon. In his twenty- seventh chapter 



* A Guide to the Quadrupeds and Reptiles of Europe. By Lord Clermont. 

 London : John Van Yoorst. 



f Birds of Europe not observed in tlie British Isles. By Dr. C. B.. Bree . 

 London : G-rooinbridge. 



