NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 179 



Etheostomatince (the Darters), " all the species of which group 

 are American," and in considering the relation of the Darters to 

 the Perches, the authors have quoted Prof. Stephen A. Forbes. 

 According to this authority : — " Given a supply of certain kinds 

 of food nearly inaccessible to the ordinary fish, it is to be ex- 

 pected that some fishes would become especially fitted for its 

 utilization. Thus the Etheostomatince as a group are explained 

 in a word by the hypothesis of the progressive adaptation of the 

 young of certain Percidce to a peculiar place of refuge and a 

 peculiarly situated food supply. Perhaps we may without vio- 

 lence call these the mountaineers among fishes. Forced from 

 the populous and fertile valleys of the river-beds and lake- 

 bottoms, they have taken refuge from their enemies in the rocky 

 highlands, where the free waters play in ceaseless torrents, and 

 there they have wrested from stubborn nature a meagre living. 

 Although diminished in size by their constant struggle with the 

 elements, they have developed an activity and hardihood, a 

 vigour of life, and a glow of high colour almost unknown 

 among the easier livers of the lower lands. . . . Notwithstanding 

 their trivial size, they do not seem to be dwarfed so much as con- 

 centrated fishes." 



A pleasant feature in this volume is its dedication " To the 

 memory of those ichthyologists of the past who have studied 

 American fishes in America, in token of the only reward they 

 asked — a grateful remembrance of their work." There follow 

 forty-eight names in this roll-call, commencing with Georg 

 Marcgraf, 1610-1644, and concluding with Marshall McDonald, 

 1836-1895. 



The Migration of Birds : a Consideration of Herr Glitkes Views, 

 By F. B. Whitlock. London : R. H. Porter. 1897. 



This brochure pertains to the atmosphere of ornithological 

 polemics. It is " a consideration of Herr Gatke's views," but it 

 is scarcely an approval of any of them. The work criticised is the 

 well-known ' Die Vogelwarte Helgoland,' of which an English 

 translation appeared in 1895, and was, as Mr. Whitlock correctly 

 remarks, " hailed with universal welcome." 



However, science is democratic, and though Herr Gatke — 



