REVIEWS. 
411 
reader should he able to diagnose” a species by the aid of the mere verbal 
description given by the author. But should he fail to do this, then he will 
find a royal road in the excellent woodcuts intercalated in the text, and 
which make assurance doubly sure.” 
Not only is each species depicted in an excellent illustration, but, in 
many cases, even varieties are figured. In point of typogi’aphy the work 
leaves nothing to be desired. In conclusion, we can only say that if any of 
our young readers desire to cultivate their powers of observation by the 
study of a most attractive and easily accessible order of animals, they should 
at once make themselves familiar with Mr. Newman’s handsome and accurate 
treatise on the British Moths, 
THE ANIMALS OF THE BIBLE.* 
W HO does not wish to know what zoologists think anent the creatures 
mentioned in the Bible ? Who has not some doubt as to whether 
the translators of the Bible have — with their limited knowledge of zoology 
— correctly interpreted the meaning of the original ? To all such, Mr. 
Wood’s attractively-named volume will furnish a fund of highly instructive 
and interesting matter. The plan of the author is simple enough, and it 
has been carried out with considerable fidelity. He has searched th e 
Scriptures ” for the names of animals, and having noted the different pas- 
sages which refer to these, he has grouped them together under their several 
heads, and has then given a popular sketch of our present knowledge of the 
creatures in question, and of the labours of those who have compared the 
oilginal Biblical name with the name of the animal in various Eastern 
tongues. The order he adopts is the zoological one, and is partly expressed 
in the title, in which he tells us that he has travelled over the whole series, 
‘^from the ape to the coral.” 
We would have it distinctly understood that Mr. Wood’s sketch is emi- 
nently a popular one. It in many cases omits important details, and, in 
some cases, lays down what would appear to other writers very question- 
able conclusions. But the tout ensemble of the work is pleasing, and, indeed, 
good ; and the illustrations— many of them page plates — are tolerably 
faithful, though in some of them scientific accuracy is sacrificed to artistic 
effect. There is but one point on which we think Mr. Wood must be taken 
to task, and it is an important one. Mr. Wood, as he honestly enough 
admits, is a compiler ; but there are two ways of compiling, and, in our 
judgment, he takes the wrong one. One plan is to boil down” and extract 
all the material from the works of original writers, without specific acknow- 
ledgment ; the other is, to quote in each case the authority from whom the 
facts are borrowed. We regret to say that the first one is that which Mr. 
Wood has followed,, and for which, we think, he must be severely censured. 
* Bible Animals. Being a Description of every living Creature men- 
tioned in the Scriptures, from the Ape to the Coral.” By the Bev. J. G. 
Wood, M.A., F.Z.S. London : Longmans. 1869. 
