676 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [VoL. XXXIV. 
trate the anatomy and embryology of echinoderms, it is hardly possi- 
ble to have given less characteristic illustrations of their structure 
and development than those selected by Mr. Bather in his introduc- 
tory chapter on the ** Echinoderma.” 
Mr. Bather has a very extensive and accurate knowledge of the 
crinoids, and he has given an excellent account of the group, but it 
is entirely out of proportion to the very moderate one given of the 
holothurians, starfishes, and Echinoidea. One need only compare 
Zittel’s account of the Echinoidea and Crinoidea with those of Mr. 
Bather and of Mr. Gregory to see how far Mr. Gregory’s account of 
the Echinoidea falls short of Zittel’s admirable presentation of the 
history of the order. 
The authors unite the ophiurans with the starfishes; in this they 
certainly will not receive the assent of writers on echinoderms, nor 
is their association of the holothurians, starfishes, and Echinoidea as 
* Eleutherozoa " in contrast to the Pelmatozoa likely to be accepted. 
The student of zoólogy is certainly entitled to a better account of 
the holothurians than that given by Mr. Goodrich. With the superb 
figures of Semper, Theel, Ludwig, Semon, and many others available, 
such figures as are given on pages 218, 219, 222, and 223 are hardly 
creditable in what is intended to be an important text-book. 
The figures as a whole vary greatly in quality ; many of the out- 
line cuts of the crinoids and the analyses of the plates are coarse. 
The figures of the few fossil Echini given are poor, and a large num- 
ber of the illustrations which accompany the starfishes and ophiurans 
are not even good as diagrammatic sketches. 
The palxontology of the echinoderms is not to be compared with 
that of Zittel and of Neumayer, and the volume bears too plainly the 
mark of having been written by palzontologists and not by mor- 
phologists familiar at first hand with the structure and development 
of echinoderms. 
Notes. — Students of earthworms will be interested in the results 
of Michaelsen's recent studies of Kinberg's types of Oligochzta 
(Ofversigt k. Vet, Akad. Forhandl. Stockholm, Bd. LVI, 1900). 
The only species from the United States included is Pherctima cali 
Jornica, which is shown to include two species of Amyntas, A. cali- 
Jornica and A. indica. 
In the Stockholm Academy's Proceedings (Vol. LVII, No. 1, P- 13) 
Dr. Einar Lönnberg gives an account of the observations of Professor 
von Grimm and himself on the fauna of the Caspian. Species of 
