Natural History of Animals. 965 



these, together with local names, are the points which make such lists 

 of enduring value, and must render ' The Zoologist ' the great text- 

 book of future Ornithologists. It requires, perhaps, a little tact to 

 estimate facts correctly, and we wish our correspondents, to give this 

 point a greater share of their attention. For instance, it would be a 

 fact devoid of interest, that the kingfisher occurs at Great Yarmouth, 

 or at Bonchurch ; but it is a fact equally replete with interest, that it 

 migrates at both those places. It would be a matter of small inte- 

 rest that woodpeckers abounded in the Isle of Wight, but their 

 absence from that island is an ornithological fact of unusual value. 

 Returning to the ' Fauna of Cork,' it is but justice to say, that the list 

 of invertebrate animals, as far as it goes, is much better than that of 

 the vertebrate, but the insects, for which we looked with much 

 anxiety, are entirely omitted. 



Notice of the Natural History of Animals* 



Although the subject of this volume is one which has been some- 

 what hackneyed of late, still its illustrations are so excellent, and its 

 getting up so admirable, that we incline to recommend it to the notice 

 of our younger readers. The author has carefully concealed that 

 depth of erudition which a Professor of Comparative Anatomy in 

 King's College must, of course, possess ; and one would suppose him 

 almost unacquainted with his subject, and merely compiling for the 

 use of those to whose tender minds knowledge should be adminis- 

 tered in minimum doses. We must, however, caution the Professor 

 against too great carelessness : it must be perfectly familiar to him 

 that the Desmidieae, which he has figured so admirably at p. 103, are 

 now almost universally regarded as members of the Vegetable King- 

 dom ; he should have quoted the opinions of Mr. Ralfs on this sub- 

 ject, and detailed their mode of reproduction, than which the whole 

 science of Natural History has no fact more wonderful or more ab- 

 normal. Let us not be understood as at all giving our opinion as to 

 their vegetable nature ; we admit, without hesitation, our inability to 

 decide ; indeed, our impression is that they belong to the Animal 

 Kingdom : but then the really profound researches of Mr. Ralfs 



* The Natural History of Animals, by Thomas Rymer Jones, F.R.S., F.Z.S., &c. 

 Vol. I. London : Van Voorst, Paternoster-row. 1845. 



