ISO THE ZOOLOGIST. 



escaped detection until publication, when Linnaeus, in his own 

 handwriting, corrected it in his own copy of the work. 



We are therefore quite unable to agree with Dr. Sharpe that 

 " the correct title of the Badger should be Meles meles, of the 

 Otter Lutra lutra, of the Roe Deer Capreolus capreolus," and so 

 forth. At the same time we do not find that Mr. Lydekker has 

 always hit upon the correct scientific appellation of some of the 

 species. To take one example, Mr. Oldfield Thomas has lately 

 shown reason for designating our Common Shrew Sorex araneus, 

 Linn. (Zool. 1895, p. 62). With Mr. Lydekker it is Sorex 

 vulgaris (p. 75). 



But the chief fault we have to find with this new book on 

 British Mammals is that it shows so little advance on the know- 

 ledge conveyed by the older text-books, except, we must admit, 

 in regard to palaeontology, which is Mr. Lydekker's strong point. 

 Not only do we find a great deal borrowed from Macgillivray's 

 little volume written fifty-seven years ago (much of which was 

 doubtless correct enough at the time it was written), but statements 

 are copied from Bell's work which have long since been shown to 

 be erroneous. We are told that the Whiskered Bat appears to 

 be unknown in Scotland, although at least three instances of its 

 occurrence there are on record ; that young Otters are born in 

 March and April ; that the Squirrel produces three or four young 

 ones " about midsummer" ; that the Irish Hare does not turn 

 white in winter, and so on. We have noted numerous inaccurate 

 statements with regard to the Chiroptera, and could fill a great 

 many pages with corrections and criticisms of statements made 

 regarding species belonging to other orders. We have no desire, 

 however, to find fault, and we will therefore only express our 

 disappointment at the contents of a book which, coming twenty 

 years after Bell's second edition, might have been so much better 

 than Mr. Lydekker has made it. 



As for the plates, perhaps the less said the better. They not 

 only possess no artistic merit, but many of them are quite in- 

 accurate. It is to be regretted that Mr. Lydekker, as an instructor 

 of the public in Zoology, did not prevail upon the publishers either 

 to substitute better ones, or to dispense with plates altogether. 



