Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 359 



these vokimes, bound in paper covers, at the net cash price of 

 il2 for the six volumes. Volumes 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918 can be 

 delivered at once ; volume 1919 is in the press and volume 1920 

 is in preparation. The general charge of this work has been 

 assumed by Dr. David Sharp, assisted by H. M. Woodcock, A. K. 

 ToTTON, F. W. Edwards, H. B. Preston, W. T. Calman, C. T. 

 Eegan, W. L. Sclater, and M. Hinton. 



The Zoological Record has had an intermittent career since it 

 was started in 1864. The International Catalogue, carried by 

 the Eoyal Society from 1900, and one of the volumes of which 

 covered the ground of the Zoological Record, was suspended in 

 1914. The new enterprise above stated will be continued if it 

 has, as should be the case, adequate financial support. 



4. The Echinoderm Fauna of Torres Strait: Its Composition 

 and Its Origin; by Hubert Lyman Clark. Department Marine 

 Biology of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Vol. 10, 

 quarto, pp. viii, 223, with 38 plates, of which 19 are in color. 

 Washington, 1921 (Carnegie Institution). — This is primarily a 

 contribution to zoogeography, although all of the species included 

 have been critically examined and many supplementary charac- 

 ters described for those that are less well known. The region 

 covered by the report is of unusual interest both from a physio- 

 graphical and zoological standpoint, for it is considered a region 

 of relatively recent subsidence. The distribution of the marine 

 life may well serve as evidence for or against this theory, and at 

 the same time indicate the route taken by a given group of ani- 

 mals in the course of its dispersal. The echinoderms are par- 

 ticularly suitable in this respect, for in no other region of similar 

 extent anywhere in the world have so many species been discov- 

 ered, no less than 240 species being recorded in this monograph, 

 146 or which are reported for the first time. They show distinct 

 evidence of a divergent origin, for some of the forms are closely 

 related with groups distributed in the Pacific, while others show 

 a close affinity with species found in the Indian Ocean. Hence the 

 author concludes that his studies indicate that subsidence of this 

 region since Mesozoic times first brought in a great number of 

 echinoderms from the Pacific, while a later and further subsi- 

 dence then opened up the Strait to the tide of East, Indian forms 

 which are now mingled with the earlier arrivals from the Pacific 

 to form the heterogeneous fauna of the present day. 



The work is also a most important contribution to the biology 

 and taxonomy of the echinoderms, for the habits of many of the 

 new and little known species are described at length and their 

 anatomical peculiarities and systematic relations fully discussed. 

 In beauty of coloration and grace of form, as indicated by the 

 superbly colored plates, these animals rank high among all of 

 nature's creations. w. R. c. 



