264 TJie Progress of Zoology. 



work of Yarrell. There is a magic in colour where birds and 

 iishes are delineated, and identification can only be safely 

 secured by the assistance of coloured prints accurately drawn 

 from the life. Mr. Couch has done this much for British fishes, 

 and deserves the thanks of all naturalists for the production of 

 a work that was much needed, and that will add considerably 

 to his high reputation. Mr. Vasey's work on the Genus Bos * 

 has evidently been a labour of love. It embodies the results of 

 painstaking research extending over several years, and the 

 spirit of careful discrimination and severe accuracy in which it 

 is written, merit the attention not only of readers of books on 

 natural history, but also of the writers of them, for guess-work 

 is largely indulged in and anecdotes are too often made the 

 means of covering positive deficiency of zoological knowledge. 

 We need monographs of the Equidiae, Cervidas, and Antelopese, 

 in a similar style, and a gathering of the facts in each towards 

 the determination of the relations of varieties to types, and the 

 economical values of the species which are adapted to the cli- 

 mate of Britain. Another desideratum of zoological literature, 

 is a comprehensive treatise on the distribution of the British 

 fauna, for which Dr. Forbes' s British Quadrupeds already affords 

 & basis. If such a work were undertaken in the spirit and 

 worked out to the completeness of Watson's Gybele Britannica, 

 it would be invaluable, not only as affording information of the 

 geographical range of any British species, but also of assisting 

 to the determination of the relations of British to European 

 zoology. Other monographs, which we cannot stay to eulogize 

 as they deserve, are Mr. Blackwall's on Spiders, published by 

 the Ray Society; Dawson's Geodephaga Britannica; and the 

 Dodo and its Kindred, by H. E. Strickland and Dr. Melville. 

 But the strictly popular works of the present day are mostly 

 built on substantial frameworks, and the fragmentary know- 

 ledge they communicate to the great class known as " general 

 readers" is good of its kind, carefully arranged, and reliable as 

 to detail. The Rev. J. G. Wood's Natural JEstoryf is the best 

 sample we know of the popular method of treating a scientific 

 subject, and it is due to its amiable and industrious author to 

 say that he has gathered pearls from many seas, and strung 

 them on thread that will bear some critical tension. It is the 

 best and most beautiful popular work now before the public. 



* Delineations of the Ox Tribe, or the Natural History of Bulls, Bisons, and 

 Buffaloes. By George Yasey. Briggs, 421, Strand. 

 t Boutledge, Warne, and Boutledge. 



