492 Analyses of Books . [August, 
past are without a parallel. Of course the figures given admit 
of two interpretations. They may indicate an increase in the 
rainfall which will not merely continue, but be still further aug- 
mented in the future ; or they may be merely a fluctuation to be 
compensated sooner or later by a series of dry years. But the 
only way to solve this vital question is continued observation. 
If the former interpretation is correCt Britain must cease to be 
habitable, and the idea of a “ national exodus ” must be seriously 
entertained. 
Professor Silvanus P. Thompson gives an account of the first 
telephone, as invented and exhibited by Philipp Reis in 1861. 
Mr. H.J. Charbonnier communicated some notes on Ridgway ! s 
“Catalogue of North American Birds” (1881). The author 
recommends the adoption of a ternary nomenclature in place of 
the present binary system. The reason, or rather the need, for 
such a change lies in the number of local forms or sub-species, 
which by naturalists of “ splitting ” propensities are being made 
to take the rank of species. As an example of the working of 
the new system he takes the two woodpeckers described by 
Swainson, — Colaptes auratus of Eastern North America, and 
C. Mexicanus of the Pacific coasts. Since then an intermediate 
form has been discovered, and has been ranked by Baird as C. 
hybridus. Ridgway’s Catalogue, however, deals with these 
three forms as follows : — 
“ 378. Colaptes auratus. (The commonest and best-known 
form.) 
“378 a. Colaptes auratus Mexicanus. (The western form.) 
“ 378 b. Colaptes auratus hybridus. (This form is a true hy- 
brid, produced from the other two, and occurs on 
the Upper Missouri.)” 
Mr. Charbonnier very justly remarks := — “ Our knowledge of spe- 
cies would greatly gain by a more accurate and scientific method 
being adopted by collectors. There is an infatuation amongst 
them for collecting only “ British birds,” whatever they may un- 
derstand by that vague expression ; or, worse again, “ British 
birds’ eggs,” the aCtual specimens of eggs so designated being in 
the majority of cases obtained on the Continent or elsewhere, 
and very often are laid by birds sub-specifically different from 
those whose name they bear.” 
We fully admit that a thorough knowledge of the organic life 
of Britain is desirable, though it is but an impoverished outlying 
portion of the PalaearCtic region. But we never can attain this 
knowledge if we refuse to study British animals and plants in 
connection with their Continental representatives. 
Mr. Cedric Bucknall continues his elaborate monograph of the 
“ Fungi of the Bristol District.” 
A paper by Mr. J. G. Grenfell, on “ Evolution in the Protozoa,” 
is briefly abstracted in the “ Report of Meetings,” but is unfor- 
