Quadrupeds. 05 



Notice of British Quadrupeds,^ 

 (Continued from p. U). 



In works of this kind there is little scope for originality, unless the 

 author has been also an experienced and diligent observer ; therefore 

 when taking up any of our recent works on British Natural History, 

 we feel scarcely authorized to treat them as original works, and ra- 

 ther incline to enquire what improvements have been made on the 

 standard authorities. Indeed with some subjects certain names be- 

 come so completely associated, that we feel disposed to deny the right 

 of subsequent authors to interfere ; we almost regard them as intru- 

 ders. Although this feeling may possibly be carried to an illiberal 

 excess, yet are we in every instance justified in comparing, with scru- 

 pulous accuracy, the new w^ith the standard work. We know that 

 these new histories must of necessity be compilations from the works 

 of earlier authors ; and we feel inclined to search, with some slight 

 degree of severity, for the improvements and additions that have been 

 incorporated. In British quadrupeds we regard Bingley's admirable 

 and most amusing volume f as such an authority: it is a work overflow- 

 ing with information, and one which we open with feelings of affection 

 and gratitude for the instruction and happiness it afforded our boyish 

 days. In the present instance we are bound to admit that the more 

 recent work contains numerous and valuable additions, more particu- 

 larly in the orders of Cheiroptera or bats, and Cetacea or whales, 

 Bingley having recorded only five species of the former, and omitted 

 all notice of the latter. 



After an introductory chapter on bats, in which the subject is treated 

 with considerable skill, Mr. Bell describes no less than seventeen spe- 

 cies; the noctule [Vespertilio noctida), the hairy-armed bat [V. Leis- 

 teri), the particoloured bat {V, discolor), this and the preceding intro- 

 duced on the authority of single specimens in the British Museum ; 

 the pipistrelle ( V. pipistrellus), the pygmy bat ( V. pygmceus), introdu- 

 ced on the authority of a specimen in the British Museum, which 

 we believe is generally thought to be the young of another species ; 

 the serotine (V. serotinus)^ the mouse-coloured bat {V. murinus), a 

 name formerly applied, and we think correctly, to the common 

 bat of Britain ; Bechstein's bat ( V. Bechsteinii), Natterer's bat ( V. 



* A History of British Quadrupeds^ including the Cetacea. By Thomas Bell, 

 F.R.S., F.L.S.,V.P.Z.S., &c. London: Van Voorst. 1837. 



t Memoirs of British Quadrupeds. By the Rev. W. Bingley, M.A., F.L.S. 



F 



