ology. 403 



ward, and containing as it does complete synonymy and copious 

 reference to authorities in addition to the enumeration of the 

 specimens in the British Museum, it cannot fail to be of great 



utility not only to the frequenters of the Museum hut to students 

 i){' fossil Ichthyology in all countries. 



Now, Mr. Woodward, with the cooperation of Charles Davies 

 Sherborn, has issued a smaller volume which is a Catalogue 

 rati of all the fossil vertebrates up to the present time found 



in the British Islands. The introduction to the volume includes 

 much useful and interesting information in regard to their geo- 

 graphical and stratigraphieal distribution, with tables of the 

 dates of the different parts of the " Poissons Fossiles" of Agassiz 

 and of the "Odontography" of Professor Owen. The catalogue 

 which follows give not only full synonymy, but a bibliography 

 which must have cost the authors much time and trouble. It 

 also attempts a revision of the genera, which on the whole is 

 judicious and will be a great help to the student, and yet in 

 some repects is too revolutionary and will tend to confuse where 

 it aims to make clear. This is specially true of the references to 

 American genera, which would have been more satisfactory if the 

 authors had been in possession of good specimens, and had not 

 trusted to necessarily imperfect figures and descriptions. It is 

 natural and unavoidable that those who are reviewing genera 

 and species of fossils found in other countries should err in con- 

 sidering forms allied to those with which they are familiar at 

 home as identical or mere varieties ; the material under their eyes 

 attaching to itself the solitary or scattered specimens floating 

 through foreign literature by an attraction which is directly as 

 the mass. Hence a safe and satisfactory comparison can only be 

 made when approximately equal amounts of foreign material 

 have been studied with that of home origin, and the prevailing 

 and characteristic features of each group are given their due 

 weight. Fortunately, Mr. Woodward is soon to be in America, 

 where he comes to see with his own eyes the fossil fishes found 

 in this country to w T hich he has made reference in the w T orks 

 referred to above. We may fairly expect that with the things 

 themselves before him he will modify somewhat the opinions he 

 has formed simply from figures and descriptions ; and it will be 

 not only a gratification to his American co-laborers but a decided 

 gain to science when with his keen observation and great knowl- 

 edge he shall pass their material in review. j. s. x. 



5. The Mammalia of the Uinta formation. 112 pp. 4to. Trans. 

 Amer. Phil. Soc, 1889. On the Geological and Faunal relations, 

 and on the Creadonta, Rodentia and Artiodactyla / by Wm. B. 

 Scott, of Princeton ; and on the Perissodactyla and the Evolution 

 of the Ungulate foot; by H. F. Osborn, of Princeton. — Professor 

 Scott discusses the stratigraphieal relations of the Uinta and other 

 Eocene formations of the Rocky Mountain summit region, and 

 concludes that this group (so named, not by Mr. King to whom 

 it is credited but by Professor Marsh) is, as generally believed, 



