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NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



A Monograph of Christmas Island (Indian Ocean). Physical 

 Features and Geology by Charles W. Andrews, B.A., 

 B.Sc, &c. ; with descriptions of the Fauna and Flora by 

 numerous contributors. Published by the Trustees of the 

 British Museum. 

 This is the account of a piece of real biological work, well 

 conceived and admirably carried out. It is truly zoological, 

 inasmuch as palaeontology has not been neglected ; and by the 

 inclusion of botany it becomes in a proper sense a full account of 

 the natural history of the island. Christmas Island is situated 

 in the eastern part of the Indian Ocean, in S. lat. 10° 25', E. 

 long. 105° 42'. Java, the nearest land, is about 190 miles to 

 the north, while some 900 miles to the south-east is the coast of 

 North- West Australia. Geologically, as Mr. Andrews describes 

 it, " the island is, in fact, the flat summit of a submarine moun- 

 tain more than 15,000 ft. high, the depth of the platform from 

 which it rises being about 14,400 ft., and its height above the sea 

 being upwards of 1000 ft." Sir John Murray defrayed the neces- 

 sary expenses for the expedition, which was successfully carried 

 out by Mr. Andrews, one of the staff of the British Museum. 



Collections were made in all branches of natural history, 

 and these, as a rule, have been worked out by specialists in their 

 respective groups. Anthropology is alone discarded, but neces- 

 sarily, for when visited by H.M.S. ' Egeria' in 1887, "the island 

 was found to be entirely uninhabited, and there was no indica- 

 tion that it had ever been occupied." 



Readers of this Journal will enjoy the bionomical notes of Mr. 

 Andrews which are attached to the more technical references to 

 many species. We can only notice a few. The Rat (Mus macleari) 

 has for natural food mainly fruits and young shoots, and to obtain 

 these it ascends trees to a great height. We read:— "I have 

 often seen them run up the trailing stems of the lianas, and, in 



