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NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



The Ca?nbridge Natural History. Vol. X. "Mammalia." By 

 Frank Evers Beddard, M.A., F.R.S., &c. Macmillan & Co., 

 Limited. 



There is perhaps not so much to be said which is new on 

 this subject, as there is on some other zoological Phyla. We 

 have in recent years been able to read the ' Introduction to the 

 Study of Mammals,' by Flower and Lydekker, and one of those 

 authors has since considerably amplified his subject in the 

 ' Royal Natural History.' Besides these publications, " Mam- 

 malia" may be said to be one of the zoological subjects now in 

 vogue, and the monthly descriptions of new and subspecies 

 is astounding to those who thought that the mammalian census 

 was approximately worked out. In America the study is ad- 

 vancing by leaps and bounds, and when a similar enterprise is 

 shown in other zoological regions, our present knowledge of the 

 smaller mammals will probably be shown as quite fragmentary. 

 Moreover, the describer of a mammal is always sure of an 

 audience. To the uninitiated, the larger the form the greater 

 its zoological importance, and the diagnosis of an Okapia will be 

 discussed by those who are oblivious to the existence of a fresh- 

 water Medusa. A Gorilla constitutes a more likely topic to draw 

 a sympathetic audience at a British Association meeting than does 

 the story of the life-history of a Nautilus, though sometimes the 

 danger of fever is sufficient to direct a temporary public interest in 

 so minute and humble a form of life as the Mosquito. In the work 

 under notice, Mr. Beddard does good service in again attacking 

 a current mammalian heresy, viz. " that ancient quadrupeds are 

 huger than their modern representatives," in many cases the 

 position being reversed. " The Mammalia first appeared upon 

 the earth in a tentative and hesitating way ; they had not cast off 

 many of the characters of their supposed reptilian forefathers ; 

 they shrank from observation and destruction by their small size, 



