240 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Parasites and Messmates,' we have to a great extent become 

 familiarised with the habits and ways of many of these lowly 

 creatures, which at one time were regarded as almost too insigni- 

 ficant to deserve attention. The author, in his Introduction, 

 distinguishes between " Colonies" and " Societies or Associations," 

 and thus expresses his reasons for commencing with a considera- 

 tion of the Vertebrata: — "II nous a semble utile d'aller des 

 formes animales les mieux connues de tout le monde, (les 

 Vertebres) vers les types des Invertebres. moins familiers a ceux 

 qui abordent l'etude des sciences naturelles. De ce fait, nous 

 abordons l'histoire des Associations avant celle des Colonies.' 

 In some cases the author's remarks suggest compilation rather 

 than observation, as, for instance, when he regards Crows as 

 gregarious, and attributes to these birds habits which are only 

 applicable to Books. 



The works of Alfred Espinas and Edmond Perrier are freely 

 quoted, and the illustrations — many of them above the average 

 in point of accuracy — have apparently been derived from that 

 zoological encyclopaedia ( Les Merveilles de la Nature.' If there 

 is nothing very new in what Dr. Girod tells us, what he has to 

 say is well said, and there are so many aspects to the subject, that 

 it is one of which we can hardly get tired. 



In the " Evolution of Animal forms before the appearance of 

 Man" (5), M. Priem has given us a very solid piece of work, 

 purely palseontological, and the numerous woodcuts (175) with 

 which it is illustrated add much to the attractiveness of his 

 remarks. They represent the principal types, and the chief 

 transition forms. The subject is one to which it is impossible to 

 do justice in the very brief notice which we can extend to it. 

 Suffice it to observe that, after stating the principles which justify 

 a contention that the animal world has undergone a progressive 

 evolution, the author attempts to show that it is generally possible 

 to indicate the factors of evolution in a genus, order, and class, 

 and he especially strives to show the existence of a progressive 

 evolution in the lowest of all animal forms, because, as he says, 

 " jusqu'a ces derniers temps elles se pretaient moins bien a cette 

 demonstration que les formes superieures." 



