148 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



at all. The view held in this volume is that " The general 

 conclusion which best suits the facts at our disposal seems to be 

 to look upon the Cetacea as an off-shoot from an early group of 

 the higher Mammalia. This is unsatisfactory in its vagueness, 

 no doubt ; but it is difficult to see what more can be said which 

 is not entirely speculative and devoid of foundation in ascertained 

 fact." 



The enumeration of the species is happily treated on the 

 synthetic method, but the question of specific consideration is a 

 complex one. Not only are specimens not easily procurable, but 

 the skeletons of stranded examples do not altogether solve the 

 problem. " Two quite different species might conceivably have 

 a quite similar skeleton, showing their specific difference only in 

 colour and other outward features." 



Mr. Beddard has well attained his desire to write " a solid 

 book tempered by anecdote," and to illustrate by the means of 

 Whales " a very important biological generalisation, the intimate 

 relation between structure and environment." The book is well 

 illustrated by Mr. Berridge, and is written throughout with a 

 greater tendency to fact than speculation. On this point the 

 author's words are clear: "Nothing is more difficult in zoology 

 than to arrive at convenient generalisations — for the paradoxical 

 reason that it is so easy to frame hypotheses. The expression 



* simplex sigillum veri,' not composed for the purpose for which 

 it is used, and yet used with such frequency in zoological writing, 

 especially in the newer developments of what is called sometimes 



* Darwinism,' has had a most deleterious effect upon speculation. 

 A simple and obvious explanation often seems to such writers to 

 settle the question at issue. And yet in the long run it seems 

 to be plain that the processes of nature are not so simple." 



British Birds, with some Notes in reference to their Plumage. 

 Vol. II. By Claude W. Wyatt, M.B.O.U. Wm. Wesley 



& Son. 



The first volume of this beautiful quarto was published in 

 1894, and was devoted to the resident British Passerine birds. 

 The second volume, now before us, " contains illustrations of all 

 the Passerine Birds which are migrants to the British Islands,— 



