2 Mcimm. 
MAMMALIA. 
Among the more important works and memoirs which have appeared 
during the year, the following may be especially mentioned : Blan ford’s 
Mammals of India, of which the first part has appeared, is an extremely 
important work from every point of view. A work which will have 
many points of connection with the one last mentioned is the description 
by Buchner of the Mammals collected by Przewalsky in Central Asia, 
of which the first part has been published during the year. Turner’s 
Report on the Seals collected by the * Challenger,’ is also a work 
which cannot be passed over. From a systematic point of view the most 
important volume of the year is Thomas’s British Museum Catalogue 
of Marsupials aud Monotremes. 
In respect of fossil Mammals, attention may be especially directed to 
the following works, viz. : Cope’s Fauna of the Puerco Eocene; 
Forsyth-Major’s preliminary description of the Fossil Mammals of 
Samos ; Osborn’s Mesozoic Mammals ; Rutimeyer’s Comparison 
of the Mammals of the Swiss Siderolites with those of the American 
Eocene; Schlosser’s Tertiary Carnivora of Europe ; and Weithofer’s 
Monograph of new mammals from the Pikermi beds. The beautiful 
plates illustrating Filiiol’s Monograph of Lophiodon are also especially 
worthy of notice. 
I.— THE GENERAL SUBJECT.* 
Allen, H. The Distribution of the Colour Marks of the Mammalia. 
P. Ac. Philad. 1888, pp. 84-105. 
After a long discussion, the author concludes that “ mimeticism ” and 
“ natural selection ” are not sufficient to have caused the colour-markings 
of the Mammals ; illustrating this opinion by the suggestion that JEluro- 
pus has been unable to change its black feet and black orbital rings, 
although these appear out of harmony with the rest of its colouration. 
Alzheimer, A. Uber die Ohrenschmalzdriisen. Verb. Ges. Wurzb. xxii, 
art. 8, 20 pp., 2 pis. 
The nerves of these auricular glands are described in certain Mammals 
in the course of this paper. 
Armas, J. A. de. La Zoologia de Colon y de Los Primeros Explora- 
dores de America. Havana : 1888, 8vo, 185 pp. 
Pp. 14-100 are devoted to the Mammals of the district round Colonia, 
Uruguay, which are arranged under 165 specific headings ; many of these 
so-called species are, however, usually regarded merely as varieties. 
Austen, E. E. Natural History in Southern Germany. Rep. Rugby 
Soc. 1887, pp. 29-40 (1888). 
Gives a popular account of the Mammals of this district. 
* An asterisk prefixed to the quotation indicates that the Recorder has not seen 
the journal or work referred to. 
