96 
REVIEWS. 
retreats, and wishes others to do so also ; hence the publication of the pre¬ 
sent work, which is to be completed in two parts, the first of which is 
before us. 
“ Knowing,” says our author, “ by experience the difficulties which lie 
in the way of identifying animals by published characters, I have laboured 
to remove or to lessen these difficulties as far as was possible. I have endea¬ 
voured to make these pages practically useful to the beginner, while yet 
they should be precise enough to serve the advanced zoologist as a conve¬ 
nient medium of reference; and I believe the student will find here the 
means of learning, with as little trouble and doubt as possible, the generic 
name of every animal that has been recognised by naturalists as inhabiting 
the British seas, from the lowest sponge up to the whale ; and it is not only 
upon descriptions that the student has to rely, but he has also for his 
assistance figures, the majority of which are striking as faithful likenesses 
of the animals they represent.” Indeed this is one of the most remarkable 
features of the present work, that while it is published at so very small a 
price, it should yet be most copious in the number of illustrations, con¬ 
taining figures of no less than three hundred and forty species (a figure 
of every genus named), of which one hundred and thirty are drawn from 
living and one hundred and two from preserved specimens, the remainder 
being copies from Johnston, Forbes, and others. We do, indeed, acquit 
the author of all vainglory when he affirms that upwards of one hundred 
figures, taken from living animals in these low forms, constitute a some¬ 
what unusual feature in a book of this size and price. 
The part before us contains the following classes :—I. Poriphora; 
II. Infusoria; III. Rliizopoda; IV. Zoophyta; V. Acalepha; VI. Echino- 
dermata ; VII. Turbellaria ; VIII. Annelida ; IX. Rotifera ; X. Crustacea; 
XI Cirripedia ; XII. Arachnida ; and, XIII. Insecta. In the synopsis of 
the classes which part two is to contain, we find, greatly to our surprise, 
that the class Aves is to be omitted. Why leave out the birds, and include 
the insects ? Surely many of the former have their home, almost always, 
in the great deep ? Ask the stormy petrel where its home is. It would, 
doubtless, say on the crest of the briny wave. We will not deny that it 
visits, and that often, the dry land; but if so, why we should convict 
Aepus marinus of constantly doing the same. And, then, we have 
known the Saxicava—and, we presume, it will be included in part two— 
have its hiding-place but a little below the nesting-place of some of the 
to-be-neglected class—Aves. We would ask Mr. Gosse to reconsider the 
subject. Our opinion is, that British marine zoology will be incomplete 
without the addition of this very interesting class. 
