NOTICES OP NEW BOOKS. 79 



But making allowance for such shortcomings, which in a first 

 attempt perhaps are inevitable, we must do Mr. Whitlock the 

 justice to admit that he has brought together in one volume a 

 number of scattered records relating to the birds of his county 

 which will be of interest to Derbyshire folk, and of utility to 

 ornithologists for the purpose of comparison with lists from 

 other counties. It is to be hoped that this book will attract the 

 attention of those who will be able to give him much further 

 information, and so enable him in a future edition to make his 

 record much more complete than it is at present. 



Les Coquilles des Eaux Douces et Saumdtres de France. Descrip- 

 tions des families, genres et especes. Par Arnould Locard, 

 Roy. 8vo. Pp. 327. With 302 figures. Paris : Bailliere 

 et Fils. 1893. 



In ' The Zoologist ' for 1892 (pp. 447, 448), we noticed a 

 former work by M. Locard on the marine shells of France, 

 published in that year. The present volume, which is uniform 

 in size, type, and style of illustration, deals with the fresh- water 

 and ^brackish-water species. It is well printed, copiously illus- 

 trated, and contains detailed descriptions, not only of all the 

 species usually recognized in French waters, but of a large 

 number of varieties which have been elevated (as it seems to us, 

 unwisely) to the rank of species, and named accordingly. Many 

 of these, we should say, are merely individual variations, and to 

 treat them as if they were so many distinct species, is to create 

 considerable difficulty for the student of conchology. The 

 differences in many cases are so slight, that even after a careful 

 perusal of the descriptions, and a comparison of the figures, it 

 is almost impossible to find sufficiently well-marked characters 

 to warrant distinction. 



It would have been preferable, we think, to place these 

 varietal forms upon a different footing, and to treat them as local 

 races, or at most as subspecies, provided always that they present 

 characters which are constant and sufficiently well marked to be 

 apppreciable. 



We are quite unable to accept the view (as M. Locard would 

 have us do) that there are, for example, 127 species of Limnaa, 



