238 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



of these, of course, would be more correctly described as 

 approaching extinction, rather than extinct, though it would be 

 unwise on that account to abstain from giving such reliable 

 information as can be obtained concerning them. Mr. Lydekker's 

 chapter, however, on this subject, is one of the most dis- 

 appointing in the book, and conveys the impression of having 

 been too hastily written. The facts which it contains are 

 jumbled and confused. The author passes from African Elephant 

 and Rhinoceros to the Tuatera Lizard and Moas of New 

 Zealand, then to the extinct birds of Mauritius and Rodriguez. 

 From these we are diverted to a consideration of the Northern 

 Sea Cow, Rhytina ; back again to the Mascarene Islands for 

 Giant Tortoises and the Pied Starling of Reunion, Fregilupus ; 

 once more to New Zealand for a paragraph or two on Nestor 

 productus and Notornis mantelli. Then comes a single page 

 upon the Great Auk, followed by some remarks on the African 

 Blaubok and Quagga, from a consideration of which we are 

 carried back again to Bering Island, where Dr. Stejneger found 

 the remains of Pallas's Cormorant in 1882, and thence to the 

 Sandwich Islands, where the fashion of making feather cloaks 

 for savage chiefs from a handsome little black-and-yellow bird, 

 Drepanornis pacifica y has resulted in its extermination. Two 

 lines in allusion to the " Diablotin, a remarkable burrowing 

 Petrel of the Antilles," and eighteen lines upon the Pied Duck 

 of Labrador, and the chapter concludes with a paragraph upon 

 a South American rodent (Dinomys). This jumbling up of 

 mammals, birds, and reptiles, without any logical arrangement, 

 is extremely embarrassing to the reader, who must also be 

 disappointed at finding so little said about many of the species 

 named. In any new edition this chapter should be re-written. 



We cannot say much for the text-cuts. Most of them appear 

 to have been borrowed from other books, and having been 

 printed from electros, have (as often happens) suffered in con- 

 sequence. This is to be regretted, for the letterpress deserved 

 to be better illustrated. 





