NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 309 



In justification of our remark that the bibliography is in- 

 complete, we may remark, to mention a score of names off-hand, 

 that it does not include any of the following, though many of the 

 writers are mentioned in the text: — Bartholomaeus, Chapman, 

 Abp. Corboyle, Sir Joseph Fayrer, Hunt, Huxley, Lindsay 

 Johnson, Kennedy, Lartet, Latouche, Lord Lilford, Sir John 

 Lubbock, Morton, Murray, Palladius, Poulton, Rope, Sanford, 

 Scott (Field Sports), and Selys Longchamps. This is unfortu- 

 nate, but still more irritating to the reader is the constant 

 omission to give references to the authorities for statements 

 of value. 



Commencing with the synonymy (p. 1), a list of vernacular 

 names is given on the next page, to which might be added, as the 

 Russian, Greek, and Polish names are given, the Arabic quit, 

 and the Turkish kedi. Discussing the etymology of the word 

 "cat," the author gives us the old High German, though not the 

 Anglo-Saxon. Nor does he give the origin of the name " puss," 

 concerning which an ingenious suggestion has been made (Zool. 

 1879, p. 487). 



In his section on geographical distribution, which is incon- 

 veniently dealt with in two places (pp. 4-5 and 31-36), some of 

 the remarks are a little inconsistent. For instance, on p. 5 we 

 read that at the present time the Wild Cat " may perhaps occa- 

 sionally still be found " in Spain, while on p. 34 it is stated to 

 be numerous in Andalucia ; and (on p. 35), on the authority 

 of Messrs. Chapman and Buck, " common throughout Spain 

 wherever rabbits abound." As regards Greece, very little inform- 

 ation is given. The author might have found some interesting 

 details in Heldreich (' Faune de Grece,' 1878), who is inclined to 

 recognise the Wild Cat in the Ailurus of Aristotle. 



As to its ancestral descent (p. 6), Dr. Hamilton thinks it de- 

 rived " in all probability directly from one or both of the species 

 of Cat whose osseous remains have been found in the Pleistocene 

 deposits both in this country and on the Continent"; although 

 Prof. Boyd Dawkins and Mr. W. A. Sanford, in their " British 

 Pleistocene Mammalia" (Trans. Palseont. Soc. 1872-73) contend 

 that the bones from the Liege caverns and from Bleadon Cave 

 belong to a larger animal than Felis catus, and conclude that a 

 Wild Cat closely allied to F. caffer lived in Northern Belgium 

 and France in the Pleistocene period, and probably also in 



