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REVIEWS OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
of colour occurring in the Alpine Hare, the Ptarmigan, and other Arctic animals, 
are the effect of temperature ; and in our opinion the existence of pure white birds 
in the tropics, and jet-black Ravens in the bleak north, is no argument to the 
contrary, but merely proves—what every one knows—that all birds are not 
organised alike. 
From those authors who would class Man among the brutes, and technically 
characterise him as differing in mere external points, we entirely dissent. It 
is by the possession of moral and especially of reflective faculties, that the human 
race so transcendentally surpasses all other portions of the animal kingdom—by 
the addition of those alone that Man is enabled to become lord of the earth. We 
cannot but smile when we see him characterized, in two lines, as 44 walking erect,” 
44 possessing hands to the anterior extremities only,” &c., and must pity those who 
take so low a view of human nature—of a race which on this earth deserves the 
deepest attention, and which will hereafter, we confidently believe, continue to 
advance in wisdom and in happiness through all eternity. 
Father Vincent Marie states that the Wanderou ( Macacus silenus ) “is 
easily trained to the performance of a variety of ceremonies, grimaces, and affected 
courtesies.” In reply to this our author, with a touch of the quiet humour which 
frequently enlivens his pages, observes that he never had the pleasure of knowing 
more than one living individual of the species, and that 44 the only piece of c affected 
courtesy’ it ever exhibited, consisted in nearly biting off the calf of a negro’s leg.” 
—p. 93. The younger St. Hilaire informs us that the Sapajous ( Cebus ) in¬ 
dulge in abstract ideas, his proof being that he once observed one of these animals, 
which had met with an unusually hard nut, descend from the top of a wooden 
•cage, and crack the said nut by bruising it against an iron bar. For the same 
reason, we put in a claim for the Garden Tit’s 44 indulging in abstract ideas,” 
since, when it meets with an unusually hard nut, it places it in a chink, and there 
hammers at it till it arrives at the kernel! 44 It is delightful,” remarks Mr. 
Wilson, 44 to find Metaphysics thus combined with Natural History.” — p. 95. 
Whether, in recording that the physiognomy of the Saimiri, or Squirrel-monkey 
(Saguinus sciureus\ is 44 extremely like that of a human infant, but much more 
pleasing than that of many,” our author intended any compliment to the taste of 
the ladies, we must leave to the sagacity of our female readers to determine. The 
same animal is remarkably attached to its offspring, and Geoffroy St. Hilaire 
observes that the large development of the posterior lobe of the brain corresponds 
with the affection. 
The Lemur family is next treated of; but as these animals have been described 
minutely in an early part of our second volume (pp. 1—13 and 189—203), we 
shall not tarry here.—The Hedgehog, according to Pallas, feeds on the Blister¬ 
ing-beetle ( Cantharis) with impunity, and, adds Mr. W ilson, it has been known 
