1876.) Recent Literature. 365 
species of Zapus. (2.) That this species, usually referred to the Muride, 
differs from the Muride to a degree warranting its recognition as a dis- 
tinct family, as was done by Dr. Gill in 1872. Its principal characters 
_ are the presence of an upper premolar not found in Muride proper, the 
different and peculiar construction of the ante-orbital foramen, and the 
saltatorial development of the hind limbs. (3.) That none of the various 
generic names that had been applied to this species were tenable, accord- 
ing to recognized rules of nomenclature. He then proceeds to show 
why the former generic appellations of Meriones, Jaculus, Dipus, and 
Gerbillus are inapplicable, and proposes the new one of Zapus, in allu- 
sion to its large hind feet. The adoption of this name for the genus he 
considers as necessitating the changing of the family name from Jaculide 
to Zapodide. Then follows the generic and specific synonomy, amounting 
. to one and a half pages, the latter embracing more than a dozen specific 
names, four of which have had, at different times, considerable prominence. 
Detailed descriptions are also given of the cranial, dental, and external 
characters of the genus, with a notice of its geographical distribution, and 
remarks on its synonymy. 
Brinton’s Myrus or tur New WortpvJ— “ Picking painfully 
amid the ruins of a race gone to wreck centuries ago, rejecting much 
foreign rubbish and scrutinizing each stone that lies around, if we still 
are unable to rebuild the edifice in its pristine symmetry, yet we can at 
least discern and trace the ground plan and outlines of the fane.” This is 
what the author has most successfully done, and the results of his studies 
are attractively embodied in the handsome volume before us. Free 
from the fulse interpretations so frequently placed upon them, we have 
here given us what certainly can be accepted as a very correct idea of 
the mental condition and peculiarity of those strange tribes of men, the 
So-called Indians of North and South America. Chapters II. to X. in- 
clusive cover the fascinating field of study suggested by the ideas of God 
among the Red race; Sacred Numbers, The Symbol of the Bird and 
Serpent, Myths of Water, Fire, Thunder, and the Religion of Sex; also 
the subject of their Supreme Gods, The Myths of Creation, the Deluge, 
ature’s Epochs and the Last Day. Chapters VIII. and IX. are devoted 
to the Subject of the origin of man and the soul and its destiny, as these 
vexed questions of our day were looked upon by the Red men, and to 
"8 are the most entertaining chapters of the work. The author traces 
back the myths of the Red men generally back to the one solar myth, 
ag disposes of the personality of their god-like heroes, as Quetzalcoatl, 
= vacocha, and Michabo. 
ae Ya € opening chapter, a general consideration of the Red race, is not, 
7 i quite so satisfactory as the body of the work. While a most ex- 
ent résumé of the proofs of the antiquity of American man is given, 
i fas Ms of the New World. A Treatise on the Symbolism and Mythology of 
revised. “is of America. By D. G. Brixton, A. M., M. D. Second Edition, 
w York; Henry Holt & Co. 1876. $2.50. 
