276 THK ZOOLOGIST. 



The pages are always interesting, and very many are beauti- 

 fully illustrated ; but the figure of the Kallima butterfly given in 

 support of " mimicry " is of an " hereditary " character, still 

 showing the insect with the head uppermost on the twig, despite 

 the many recent corrections that have appeared to the effect that 

 the butterfly when at rest has head downwards. 



A Synopsis of the Mammals of North America and the adjacent 

 Seas. By Daniel Giraud Elliot, F.E.S.E., &c. Field 

 Columbian Museum, Publication 45. Chicago, U.S.A. 



This is a most valuable synopsis of the Mammals of North 

 America, but the knowledge and industry displayed seem to be 

 in an inverse ratio to the strength of purpose in the author. 

 Mr. Elliot recognizes the plethora of proposed species in his 

 fauna : " A considerable number of the so-called species and 

 subspecies contained in this volume will eventually swell the list 

 of synonyms already sufficiently formidable." He further makes 

 the remark that in late years there is an inclination to unduly 

 separate in a specific sense *' at the risk of reducing the science 

 to one founded on labels and localities, instead of distinctive 

 and prominent characters." He clearly states that " there is 

 hardly a genus of North American mammals that does not con- 

 tain too many named forms," but decides that the present time 

 cannot be supposed " as opportune for a final and satisfactory 

 I'evision." We regret this decision: either the criticism need 

 not have been made, or it should have been pressed home by the 

 author's revision. In the purely artificial canons of nomenclature, 

 where the greatest liberty — if not licence — is observed, it requires 

 no more courage to dethrone than to elect in a process that 

 Mr. Elliot recognizes as largely one of names. One statement 

 deserves special attention, as presumably applied to species not 

 described on outside colouration, or non-essential measurements, 

 but absolutely founded on cranial characters, and that is that 

 these are subject to a large element of error, for *' the lack of 

 resemblances often observed among crania is frequently but the 

 individual variations of a type." In this work crania are mostly, 

 if not entirely, figured so that the caution becomes authoritative. 



There can be little doubt that this synopsis of the Mammals 

 of North America will for some time hold the field ; it is, like all 



