43-1 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



books, and concerning which we can only glean scraps of 

 information by a laborious'search through foreign periodicals. 



To give an instance : one of the first animals we looked for 

 in this volume was the Saiga Antelope, being desirous to learn 

 something of its past and present geographical range. To our 

 disappointment we find merely six lines descriptive of the genus, 

 followed by the remark, " One species, Eastern Europe and 

 Western Asia," and the statement that " the Saiga is a clumsily 

 built and sheep-like Antelope inhabiting the steppes ; it occurs 

 fossil in the Pleistocene of France and England." 



On the other hand, such a well-known animal as the Lion 

 has no less than seven pages devoted to it ! 



The necessity for economising space has evidently neces- 

 sitated, in some cases, the dismissal of an interesting topic in 

 the fewest possible words. For example, on the question whether 

 the Camel is known to exist in a wild state, we read (p. 297), 

 "it is reported that wild Bactrian Camels occur in the more 

 remote parts of Turkestan." 



Presumably this refers to the report of Dr. Finsch, of Bremen, 

 though his name is not mentioned, nor is any allusion made to 

 the experience on this point of Col. Prejevalsky in the great 

 desert of Gobi. A brief reference to the reports of these two 

 travellers might well have been given in a couple of lines. Such 

 indications of sources of information are most useful, but in 

 several test-cases taken at random we have not found them. 



In some respects the Index might be made fuller, particularly 

 by including the common or local names of animals, under which 

 they would naturally be sought for in an Index by those ignorant 

 of their scientific appellations. Let us suppose that the reader 

 desires to learn something of the systematic position, affinities, 

 and habits of the so-called " Tasmanian Devil," he will find it 

 under neither of these two words. If he happens to be ignorant 

 of its scientific name (Sarcophilus ursinus), and does not know 

 that it is a typical placental carnivore, he may turn over a good 

 many pages before discovering it. Similarly he will look in vain 

 in the Index for "Musk Cat" and " Musk Shrew," although the 

 scientific names of both are there, if he only knew them. 



These are mere trifles in comparison to the large amount of 

 information given in this volume. They are not put forward in 

 any carping spirit of criticism, but rather from the point of view 



