134 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
resemblance, a humidity well marked, and yet possess totally 
dissimilar faunas. Moreover, Great Britain has a fauna almost 
common to the adjacent European continent; whilst that of New 
Zealand differs from the neighbouring Australian to a greater 
extent than obtains in the faunistic relationship of England and 
Japan. This may be trite information, but it cannot be too suffi- 
ciently emphasized. 
The “ Philosophy of Zoology” is treated in a temperate and 
judicial manner; whilst the true principles of Evolution and its 
methods as expressed by ‘‘ Natural Selection” with its handmaid 
Mimicry, &c., are clearly acknowledged. But it is well observed : 
‘The generalisations forming the subject-matter of the philosophy 
of zoology may, in some instances, be so clearly and directly 
deducible from the data concerned, that it is scarcely possible 
for anyone conversant with the facts to refuse credence to the 
generalisation. But in other cases the conclusion is a matter of 
probability only, and one conclusion or another may be regarded 
as the more probable, according to the estimate formed of the 
relative importance to be attached to different sets of the facts or 
to different aspects of the facts.” 
The “ History of Zoology” is necessarily a compressed digest, 
but we are glad to see that our countryman John Ray is recognised 
as the first to grasp the specific generalisation, though his imper- 
fect efforts were afterwards developed and perfected by Linneus. 
We will conclude this notice with the last words of our authors. 
‘‘Nothing is more certain than if the new ‘Natural History’” (the 
study of living animals under natural conditions) “is to be superior 
to the old—more scientific, more concerned with the solution 
of general problems—it can only be by utilising to the full all 
that has been learnt in the laboratory in the departments of 
anatomy, physiology, and embryology.” 
A History of Fowling: being an account of the many curious 
devices by which Wild Birds are or have been captured in 
different parts of the World. By the Rev. H. A. Mac- 
PHERSON, M.A. Edinburgh: David Douglas. 
THERE are certain subjects about which everyone knows a 
little, which possess local specialists, but which have never 
been treated in an universal manner. Historians are familiar 
“ oe — Ps _ 
Dem egeedt bd ahs Ba 
