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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
the classification adopted by our author, which, as already indicated, is- 
founded upon the views put forward by the latest writers upon the different 
groups. But in a case to which the old proverb “ so many men, so many 
minds ” is peculiarly applicable, to insist upon such objections would be 
absurd. For our own part, we cannot help regarding the establishment of 
eighteen orders of birds as unnecessary, and as masking absolute relation- 
ships ; but the author has the authority of Prof. Huxley and others on his 
side, and must not be blamed for adopting what is really the result of the 
analytical method of studying zoology now prevalent, and due to the fact 
that the leading students of that science have been for years becoming more 
and more pure anatomists and less zoologists in the broad sense of the term. 
To the same circumstance it is owing that Prof. Macalister’s work bristles 
with technical terms in every line, a characteristic which was animadverted 
upon rather severely, in connexion with his former volume. The fact is, 
however, that the Professor is hardly the guilty party in this instance. He 
found the terms in use, proposed by men whose names bear authority, and 
he is perhaps rather to be praised than blamed for having used and explained 
them for the benefit of his readers. The fault lies with the inventors of such 
a multitude of terms, who seem to forget, in the desire to introduce the 
greatest possible precision into their descriptions of the structure of a given 
group, that there are hundreds of other groups equally deserving of being 
treated in a similar fashion, and which, being actually so treated, give rise to 
a terminology of the most fearful extent and difficulty. If matters go on 
long in the present fashion we shall have to learn a new technical language 
for every group of animals. The thing has already gone to a very consider- 
able length, and as Prof. Macalister has clearly defined most of these modern 
morphological terms of art, his use of them in the present book will be of 
advantage to those who really wish to master the study of animal morphology. 
In this, as in his former volume, the author has adopted the plan of 
printing details in small type. It is illustrated with a few woodcut figures 
and diagrams, which aid greatly in elucidating some of the more obscure 
points to which the author has to refer ; and a tolerably copious Index, 
generally containing references to the definitions of technical terms, adds 
considerably to the value of the volume, which may be recommended as a 
very useful guide for the practical student. 
THE ZOOLOGY OF VICTORIA.* 
B ESIDES publishing the results of the geological and botanical investiga- 
tions of the colony which have now been in progress for a good many 
years, the Government of Victoria seem resolved to do what they can for 
the elucidation of its zoology, and accordingly Prof. McCoy has just brought 
out the first part of a work on this subject which promises to be of great 
interest and value. From his preface it appears that, with the view of 
* “ Natural History of Victoria. Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria ; 
or, Figures and Descriptions of Living Species of all Classes of the Victorian 
Indigenous Animals.” Decade I. By Frederick McCoy. 8vo. Melbourne., 
London : Triibner & Co., and G. Robertson. 1878. 
