170 Recent Literature. [ March, 
of Agassiz. It is not, however, based upon the comprehensive plan 
which renders the earlier work so valuable, and is far inferior to it, not 
only in plan but in execution. As far as we have noticed, all names of 
groups higher than genera have been omitted ; the value gained by their 
introduction would have far more than compensated for the slight addi- 
tional labor required. To have added the derivations, as Agassiz did, 
would have so greatly augmented the labor of the compiler, besides in- 
creasing the cost of the work, that we can scarcely blame the omission, 
valuable as they would have been. What we deem, however, one of the 
prime defects of the work is that the names are not grouped in a single 
series, but are scattered under twenty-one distinct headings (representing 
as many groups of the animal kingdom), and no general index is fur- 
nished ; one of the most frequent uses to which works of this nature are 
put is in searching whether a name which it is proposed to adopt is already 
in use in zodlogy ; but for this, one must now look through twenty-one 
different lists. When we add that the work is full of misprints, has many 
names out of the intended alphabetical order, and is certainly by no 
means complete,’ we are obliged to confess that a most useful intention 
has been spoiled in the accomplishment. 
Hentz’s SPIDERS or tue Unirep Srares.2 — Besides its regular 
publications of Memoirs and Proceedings, the Boston Society of Natural 
History publish a series of Occasional Papers. The first of these was a 
collection and reprint in elegant style of the miscellaneous papers of the 
late Dr. T. W. Harris. A more useful work is the present reprint of 
the papers on our spiders, by Mr. Hentz. In its present form it will be 
the starting-point for future studies on this subject, and prove exceed- 
ingly useful from the large number of excellent figures, which represent 
however, species chiefly from the Southern States. The work has passed 
through careful editorial hands, and the drawings and notes by Mr. 
Emerton add not a little to the usefulness and value of the work. A 
biographical sketch is given by Mr. Burgess. ; 
_ Morsr’s First BooK or Zoé.ocy.® — The fact that a second edition 
of this attractive little book has so soon appeared is good evidence of its 
entire fitness as an elementary book of zodlogy. The few typographical 
errors which occurred in the first edition have been corrected ; otherwise 
the book is the same, and to our mind in its present form unexception- 
1 As a single instance we may cite the entire absence of the numerous genera pro- 
posed by Fieber in Lotos, during 1854. This is the more remarkable as Fieber’s 
papers were noticed at the time in a literary review published in Count Marschall’s 
own country, the Bericht d. Oesterreich. Literatur. 
* The Spiders of the United States. A Collection of the Arachnological Writings 
of NichoLas MARCELLUS Hentz, M. D. Edited by Epwarp Burcess, with Notes 
and Descriptions by James H. Emerton. Occasional Papers of the Boston Society 
of Natural History. II. Boston. 1875. 8vo, pp. 117. With 21 plates. Cloth, 
. 00. 
* First Book of Zoölogy. By Epwarp S. Morse, Pu. D., etc. New York: D. AP 
pleton & Co. Second Edition. 12mo, pp. 190. 1876. With many wood-cuts. $1.25. 
