55 ^ 
Notices of Books. 
[October, 
different habit on the part of our wild birds. They no longer 
swallow the cherries and plums whole, and so they content 
themselves by eating away all the juicy pericarp, leaving the 
stones hanging by the footstalks.” This we may, indeed, see on 
every cherry-tree, but we may see it also on the wild cherry. It 
is not swallowed whole, but its small layer of pulp is carefully 
picked away from the stone. We must also remember that many 
Mammalia void the seeds of fruits undigested. 
It is a curious facff that brilliant colouration in caterpillars and 
other insedts should so often be a warning to birds that the 
species is not edible, whilst in fruits it is an invitation to a 
banquet. There is only one further passage to which we have 
space to advert. “ The Romish Church,” says our author, 
“authoritatively denounced the Copernical theory of the Uni- 
verse, just as she has recently denounced Darwinism.” Now 
that many clergymen of the Catholic Church have expressed 
themselves hostile to the doctrine of Evolution is indisputable. 
In this respedt they have not been singular. Clergymen of the 
Church of England, ministers of the Scottish Church and of 
dissenting communities, have done the same. But that any 
formal and authoritative condemnation of “ Darwinism ” has 
been pronounced by the Holy See we have yet to learn. 
Dr. Taylor’s work is provided with an elaborate table of com 
tents and an excellent index. 
Annual Record of Science and Industry for 1877. Edited by 
Spencer F. Baird. New York : Harper Brothers. Lon- 
don : Triibner and Co. 
This useful work has undergone a change of plan. The abstracts 
from scientific journals and from the Transactions of Societies, 
which formerly constituted its main feature, has been omitted, 
in consequence of the rapidly increasing quantity of scientific 
work done in the world, and in its place the summaries of pro- 
gress of each science have been extended. 
In biology no very striking advance during the past year is 
here recorded. Mr. Scudder, though from a different point of 
view, joins Mr. A. R. Wallace in objecting to the doctrine of 
Sexual Selection.” Whilst admitting with Mr. Darwin that 
where the sexes differ in colouration the male is most beautiful, 
he contends that it is the female who “ first departs from the 
normal type of colouring of the group to which the species 
belongs.” He recalls no case where such a departure can be 
traced in the male alone. He points out that the males of cer- 
tain butterflies possess peculiar cells, to which he gives the name 
of androconia. These are of great beauty and delicacy, but are 
