1 66 The Museum Gazette 



The S.P.C.K. are also the publishers of Dr. M. C. 

 Cooke's well-known book, "Toilers in the Sea," containing 

 well-written chapters on " Sponge weavers, Sea-fan makers, 

 Coral builders, Tube-masons," &c. 



Mr. Charles Dixon's " British Sea Birds" was published in 

 1896 at half-a-guinea. 



A very good bibliography of popular works relating to the 

 British Fauna is given in F. G. Aflalo's admirable sketch 

 of the Natural History (Vertebrates) of the British Islands ; 

 published by Messrs. Blackwood in 1898. 



Those wishing for a very brief and readable summary of 

 life in the seas cannot do better than purchase Dr. Sydney 

 Hickson's " Story of Life in the Seas," published in Mac- 

 millan's shilling " Story " series. 



NOTES ON SEA BATHING, &c. 



With but few exceptions it is only the naked-skinned 

 animals that go much into water. The hippopotamus, the 

 elephant, all pigs, and the tapir love to bathe in warm 

 weather. However hot it may be, sheep, oxen, horses, and 

 all animals having fur seldom or never think of going into 

 water. Many of them enjoy cooling their feet, but they shun 

 all wetting of their coats. Possibly none of the monkey 

 tribe, not even the anthropoid apes, systematically bathe or 

 even wash. The polar bear and the sea otter afford, perhaps, 

 the best examples, and very exceptional ones, of animals still 

 keeping a good coat of hair which habitually frequent the 

 water. Whales, seals, the dugong, and the manatee are most 

 of them almost wholly hairless. Seals are the chief excep 

 tion, and only some of them. 



We will not venture to base any inferences on these facts. 

 It may easily be the case that too constant immersion, as in 

 the whales and sirenians, is a cause of the falling of the hair. 



In all countries, excepting the coldest, some portions of 

 the human race show a fondness for water. Place of resi- 



