10 
ZOOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 
Owen, R. On the marsupial pouches, mammary glands, and 
mammary foetus of the Echidna hystrix. Philos. Trans. 1865 
(pp. 671-686, with three plates). — An abstract of this me- 
moir appeared in Proc. Roy. Soc. 1865, p. 106, and in 
Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1865, xv. May, pp. 419-423. 
Peters, W. Note on the Mammalia observed by Dr. Welwitsch 
in Angola. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1865, April 25 (pp. 400-401). 
Eleven species are enumerated. 
. Note on the systematic position of Platacanthomys 
lasiurus. Ibid. April 25 (pp. 397-399, with a plate). 
. Ueber die zu den Vampyri gehorigen Elederthicre, und 
iiber die naturliche Stellung der Gattung Antrozous. Mo- 
natsber. Akad. Wiss. Berl. 1865, Oct. 16 (pp. 503-525) . 
• [On the Chiropteres belonging to the Vampyri, and on the 
natural position of the genus Antrozous^ 
. Uber die brasilianischen von Spix beschriebenen Fle- 
derthiere. Ibid. Nov. 13 (pp. 568-588, with a plate). 
[On the Brazilian species of Chiropteres described by Spix.] 
PuciiERAN — . Sur les indications que pent fournir la Geo- 
logic, pour Pexplication [dc ce] que presentent les Faunes 
actuelles. Rev. et Mag. Zool. 1865. 
This paper is spread over nearly all the numbers of the Journal 
mentioned, and is not finished in the volume for 1865. The 
author, who has adopted the doctrine of the variability of spe- 
cies, attempts to show where and in what manner geology can 
furnish evidence as regards an original relation between faunas 
which, in our period, present more or less degrees of difference. 
It would appear from M. Pucheran^s treatise that the assistance 
actually furnished by geology to the zoologist is, at present, 
insignificant, compared with what may be expected. The au- 
thors observations refer to the general characters of the Mam- 
malian and Ornithic faunas of the Sahara, Central Asia, and 
South America. He starts from the general fact that a perfect 
harmony exists between the physical conditions of a certain 
part of the globe and its fauna, and avows the impossibility of 
an explanation in cases where we find two countries, like New 
Guinea and Madagascar, offering the same physical characters, 
yet inhabited by most distinct faunas. 
To show that the harmony between the fauna and the phy- 
sical condition of a country has been gradually established 
(riiarmonie post-etablie) , he chooses (§ 1) as an example the 
fauna of the plains of Africa and Northern Asia. Geology 
teaches us that the Sahara was once submerged below the sea,* 
consequently the animals inhabiting it arc not aborigines, but 
