150 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



considered a condensation of the previous work, u adapted to the 

 requirements of the student in higher classes of schools, and to 

 some extent in junior classes of universities." The curtailment 

 has been effected " (1) by leaving out altogether certain classes 

 of existing animals ; (2) by omitting all descriptions of extinct 

 groups ; (3) by dealing only very briefly with embryology." We 

 may also accept Prof. Haswell as really the writer of this Manual, 

 the death of Prof. Parker having taken place at an initial stage 

 of the work. 



Thus we have the essence of a really good book in a convenient 

 form for teachers and students, and if the teacher has not also to 

 learn his subject from its pages — as is unfortunately sometimes 

 the irony of the position — but can really impress its contents on 

 his pupils, then this volume should more than hold its own in 

 that often undigested superstition that rejoices in the name of 

 " science for schools." In these days, when everybody is a 

 politician, a military general, and an evolutionist, it is at least 

 something that the last position can be fortified by the sound 

 zoological axioms obtainable in a small and inexpensive book. 

 Not that the last word is said on any subject; and when we read 

 that the Amphibia differ " from all fishes but the Dipnoi, in the 

 presence of lungs for breathing air in the adult," we accept the 

 rule, but recur to the exception in " Salamanders with and 

 without lungs," recently noticed in these pages (ante, p. 96). 

 Even a specialist may read with the greatest interest the intro- 

 ductory remarks as to what constitutes both " genus " and 

 " species," and remember that in the description of the last a 

 representative and not an individual is the real specific type. 

 It is only fair to say that the authors of this volume do not 

 lay down this rule, but the inference may be drawn from their 

 definitions. 



The Caroline Islands. By F. W. Christian, B.A., &c. 

 Methuen & Co. 

 The South Sea Islands are still, among naturalists, a name to 

 conjure with. In Spanish Micronesia alone, between 139° and 170° 

 E. longitude, are scattered a long chain of 652 islands. It was 

 in this almost zoologically unknown zone that the once princely 

 Hamburg merchant house of Goddeffroy Bros, incited their 



