1064 The American Naturalist. [December, 
inhabitants. Type specimens from the immense African collections 
which have been acquired recently by European museums are repre- 
sented by numerous drawings and many new and excellent photo- 
graphs of natives are reproduced. We are led to believe (p. 250) that 
Africa was peopled from the “eastward,” probably by way of Arabia. 
The similarity of certain art products, social customs and anatomical 
characters between the African and Oceanic races would seem, to 
many anthropologists, to be of greater value as evidence of unity of 
origin than the resemblances between the myths of the two regions 
` upon which Professor Ratzel lays some stress. Whatever his origin 
may have been, the future of the African is considered to be of greater 
importance ; what that future will be we may form some estimate from 
the excellent account given of his present condition. 
It is to be regretted that a map of America, at least of the South 
American tribes, is not given. Ornithologists will certainly not admit 
the oe aN ee among American Tetraonide (p. 9), and if the “ par- 
tridge ” is “ a species of quail,” as in the south where Colinus virgini- 
anus is so called, then it cannot be of “about the same size” as the 
prairie hen, which, however, does equal the size of Bonasa wnbrellus, 
the “ partridge” of the north. The pigeon was, notis, abundant. Ursus 
ferox is given for U. horribilis. A cheerful and lively disposition 
might have been ascribed to many other Indian tribes besides those of 
the “sunny regions in the southern Rocky Mountains,” for example, 
the northern Athabascans who possess a cheerful temperament in spite 
of the depressing influences of their inhospitable environment. The 
Athabascan tribe referred to as “ Ojibbeways” on p. 28, is probably 
the Chippewyan group which occupies the region between the Great 
Slave Lake and Lake Athabasca, a thousand miles northwest of the 
territory of the Ojibzways of Algonquin stock. 
The work, as a whole, is clear and comprehensive, a contribution 
which we believe will do much toward explaining the nature and pur- 
pose of this department of anthropology to the lay reader, and which 
supplies the student with a text-book of the greatest value—F. R 
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
The French School of Anthropology entered upon the work of its 
rig a ee year on November 3d. The program for 1897-98 is as 
follows: 
