388 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



lative view. The author asks " whether the primitive mind did 

 not first invest the world of animals with mystery, because they 

 are objects near at hand, within their limited horizon, and only 

 afterwards rise to the point of grasping the heavenly bodies as 

 being endowed with supernatural power ? " 



This is a purely mythological book, and, like all mythologists, 

 the author must expect little sympathy when he fails to carry 

 conviction. That disjointed but widely-spread custom, the cou- 

 vade, the explanation of which has so perplexed anthropologists, 

 is here sought to be divined by the aid of the habits of the 

 Cuckoo, which, having been a pagan god, was afterwards "de- 

 graded to a devil." The Sphinx is considered as a Greek 

 embroidery upon the Owl, and the author remarks that " we get 

 thus an explanation of the sphinxes on the helmet of the great 

 statue of Pallas Athene in the Parthenon, described by Pausanias. 

 They were merely more elegant and artistic forms of the homely 

 Owl, the bird of Minerva." That birds have entered largely into 

 the old mythologies this book abundantly maintains with many 

 valuable and apt references, but that they have played the part 

 suggested for them by Mr. de Kay will, we venture to think, 

 not be considered proven by all his readers. But, like the 

 Phoenix, the best hypothesis usually arises from the ashes of its 

 predecessors. 



Whether the illustrations should be styled " decorations," as 

 on the title-page, is altogether another question. Mr. Allenson's 

 name appears as representing the publisher on the title-page, but 

 A. S. Barnes & Co. is printed on the cover. 



