REVIEWS AND EXCHANGES 
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expected the hares would have a fair chance, and that the 
majority would escape. Such, however, was not the case, at all 
events when I was there. Out of more than thirty courses that 
morning very few indeed survived. Their death seemed a fore- 
gone conclusion. In many instances they were caught in the 
first three hundred yards or so, and this in spite of a fair start as 
far as distance was concerned. It was a common remark that 
the hares were weak this year, a reason for their being unable to 
hold their own against the dogs that did not commend itself to 
me. The odds against the poor hares were too great. They 
had beaten themselves against the wire-netting in trying to 
evade the men with the flags, while enemies on every side 
caused them to be bustled and confused. No wonder the result 
was little better than a massacre! 
I venture to ^ink that if the hares had not been disheartened 
before the greyhounds were loosed, they would have given a far 
better account of themselves, and the mettle of their pursuers 
would have been more severely tested. 
Naturalist. 
December, 1904. 
REVIEWS AND EXCHANGES. 
The Cambridge Natural History, Vol. VII., Fishes, Ascidians, fr’r. By S. K. 
Harmer, W. A. Herdman, T. W. Bridge and G. A. Boulenger. Macmillan 
& Co. Price 17s. net. 
“The Cambridge Natural History,” now rapidly nearing completion, is not 
intended for the mere general reader ; it is a thoroughly scholarly work for 
students, amply sustaining the reputation of an ancient university as being in the 
van of scientihc progress. The field covered by the last volume of the series 
which was reviewed in these pages, that by Dr. Gadow on Amphibia and Reptiles, 
permitted more detail as to life-histories, habits and general “ natural history ” 
than does that of the present volume. As the first volume dealing with the 
highest phylum of the Animal Kingdom, this necessarily deals largely with 
details of anatomy and embryology ; and, though inevitably technical, much of 
these details is profoundly interesting, especially as presenting us with a full 
summary of much recent research bearing upon the very bases of the doctrine of 
evolution. The old-fashioned naturalist was content with a “ sub-kingdom ” 
Vertebrata, divided into five large classes. Fishes, Amphibia, Reptiles, Birds 
and Mammals ; and it was the work of Darwin that first directed the attention 
of the general reader to forms at or below the base of this series, such as the 
lancelet and the ascidians, to which the term “ vertebrate ” is not strictly applic- 
able, but which certainly approximate to the ancestral stock of the true Verte- 
brata. The elastic embryonic “ notochord ” is more truly characteristic than a 
bony vertebral column ; so that we now have a “ phylum ” Chordata, divided 
into four very unequal “ sub- phyla,” viz., the Hemichordata, including the woTm- 
like and its near allies, the Urochordata, i.e., the old group Tuni- 
cata, or the ascidians, the Cephalochordata, or lancelets, and the Craniata. 
The highest subphylum, moreover, is now' divided into six, instead of five, classes, 
the Cyclostomata, or lampreys and hag-fishes, being separated under the name 
“ Agnathostomata,” not only from true fishes, but from all the higher, or gnathos- 
tomatous vertebrates, by being destitute of biting jaws. To the student of modern 
zoology there is perhaps nothing more novel in this volume than Mr. Boulenger’s 
classification of the Teleostei ; but the mere dilettante will be particularly grateful 
