390 
XLIII.—The Mammals of La Plata. 
EeISE HITECH HIE La PLATA-STAATEH MIT BESONDEEEE EfiCKSICHT 
AITF DIE PHYSISCHE BeSCHAFFEKHEIT ITND DIE ClTLTTTE-ZlT- 
STAFTD DEE AbGENTLNTSCHEH EePUBLIK, AUSGEFUHET IH DEH 
Jaheen 1857-1860. Yon Dr. Hermann Burmeister. Two vols. 
8vo. Halle, 1861. 
De. Heemahh Bijemeistee, of Halle, lias long been known to the 
world of science as one of the most learned and most active of the 
present generation of Naturalists. Unfortunately his political opi¬ 
nions, which are naturally enough little in accordance with those of 
the present regime in Prussia, have been put forth with too great 
vehemence to allow of his remaining quiet in his Professorship of 
Zoology in the Eoyal University of Halle. On two occasions already, 
a term of exile indicted on him by his Eoyal Master, under the plau¬ 
sible name of “ leave of absence,” has driven him from his country. 
As we learn from the preface to the second volume of the work now 
before us, Dr. Burmeister has now left Europe for ever, we conclude 
it is to the same beneficent ruler that European Science is indebted 
for the permanent loss of one of the foremost in the ranks of living 
Savants. 
It is, however, some satisfaction to know that science has gained 
not a little by Dr. Burmeister’s twice-enforced absence in foreign 
countries. On the first of these occasions he visited the South-eastern 
provinces of Brazil, and the researches there made led to the publica¬ 
tion of his “ Systematische Uebersicht der Thiere Brasiliens,” (the 
most complete treatise on the Mammals and Birds of this country 
yet issued) besides of many other contributions to Zoology and Ana¬ 
tomy, published in the Scientific Journals of the Continent. On the 
second occasion his four years’ “leave of absence” has terminated in 
the production of two volumes containing the history of his journey- 
ings in the Argentine Eepublic, and the results of his examination of 
the peculiar Eauna of that country. 
Dr. Burmeister left Europe upon this last expedition in October, 
1856. The first station chosen for his residence in the Argentine 
Eepublic was Mendoza—situated at the foot of the Andes, near the 
great pass of Uspallata. The second was Parana, on the great river 
of the same name, on the other side of the Eepublic, and the third 
Tucuman—the chief city of the northern province of that name. 
In these three cities and on the road between them Dr, Burmeister 
passed his time until January, 1860, when he returned to Europe, 
crossing the Andes to Copiapo, and taking the Pacific steamer to 
Panama. The whole of Dr. Burmeister’s narrative is replete with 
details of interest to the Naturalist, and we heartily recommend it to 
our readers’ notice. But what we are most concerned with at present 
is his systematic account of the Mammals of La Plata, which is given 
at the termination of his second volume, and of which we shall 
attempt to transfer some sort of outline to these pages. 
