RECENT LITERATURE 
177 
As a necessary result of the destruction of the coyote man will have to face 
the problem of accounting for the thousands of ground squirrels which the ani- 
mals destroy each year, as Dixon clearly points out. Control measures breed 
control measures. Control in one direction throws nature out of balance and 
often gives rise to troublesome consequences which must be dealt with through 
additional control measures. 
The case has recently been well stated by two British authorities. Watt 
(Journ. Ecol., vol. 7, Nov. 1919, pp. 201-202) cited herbivorous animals as a 
chief cause of failure of natural regeneration of the oak in Britain. As a result 
of the reduction in numbers" of carnivorous animals there has been a general 
increase in rabbits, mice, moles, and certain birds. “Man by upsetting the 
balance of nature, and assuming control of what directly affected his own inter- 
ests, is now paying the penalty in other ways, and must, having killed or sup- 
pressed the contrpllers, either assume total control himself or assist in such by 
a judicious encouragement of those animals he once considered his inveterate 
foes.” The same point is made by Lankester, quoted by Watt, . 
civilized man has proceeded so far in his interference with extra-human nature, 
has produced for himself and the living organisms associated with him such a 
special state of things by his rebellion against natural selection and his defiance 
of Nature’s pre-human dispositions, that he must either go on and acquire firmer 
control of the conditions or perish miserably by the vengeance certain to fall 
on the half-hearted meddler in great affairs. We may indeed compare civilized 
man to a successful rebel against Nature who by every step forward renders 
himself liable to greater and greater penalties, and so cannot afford to pause 
or fail in one single step.” (Kingdom of Man, 1911, pp. 31-32). 
— W alter P. Taylor. 
Pohle,. Hermann. Die Unterfamilie der Ltjtrinae. (Eine systematisch- 
TIERGEOGRAPHISGHE StUDIE AN DEM MATERIAL DER BeRLINER MuSEEN. ) Archiv 
f. Naturg., 85 Jahrg. (1919), Abt. A, 9 Heft, pp. 1-247; 19 text figs., 10 plates. 
November, 1920. 
The recent and fossil otters of the world are treated in this extensive mono- 
graph. An examination of the systematic part (pp. 1-174) leads one to believe 
that the material available to the author in many groups hardly justified so 
pretentious a work. But he has drawn liberally upon the literature of the group 
and has compiled tables of measurements, lists of localities, and descriptions of 
specimens from many sources. Seven new forms are described: Lutra hrunneay 
Pontianak, Borneo; L. maculicollis kivuana, Kissenje, Lake Kivu, German 
East Africa; L. tenuis, Lake Mohasi, German East Africa; L. intermedia, Sumatra; 
L. lutra ceylonica, Nuwara, Ceylon; Amhlyonyx cinerea fulvus, Lao Key, Tonkin, 
Indo-China; and Aonyx microdon, Dorf Bomse, Kamerun, Africa. ' 
The name Latax lutris gracilis Bechstein, 1800, is revived, erroneously, to 
replace Latax lutris nereis Merriam, 1904. Bechstein’s name was based upon 
the “slender otter” of Pennant, described from “Staten-Land.” Dr. Leonhard 
Stejneger has called the reviewer’s attention to the fact that the Staten-Land 
^of Pennant is without doubt the most southern island of the Kurile group, north 
of Japan; so named by its discoverer, de Vries, a Dutch navigator, in 1643. The 
name gracilis for a sea-otter is thus a synonym of lutris. In this connection it 
