The Zoologist/4th series, vol 4 (1900)/Issue 708/Notices of New Books
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
This volume introduces the series about to be published on the 'Fauna of South Africa,' edited by Mr. W.L. Sclater, the Director of the South African Museum, Cape Town, and possesses a melancholy interest by the fate of its author, who was killed at Ladysmith during the late siege.
Ornithology is rapidly becoming—even if it is not already—much less an esoteric science, to be followed only by students of means, who found it possible to acquire a charming but all too expensive a literature. We already possessed Sharpe's edition of Layard, and the excellent 'Notes on the Birds of Damara Land,' by Anderson, revised by Mr. J.H. Gurney; but these were practically the only handbooks on the South African subject. There was a large literature, as may be seen by the bibliography given in this volume, but it pertained to the possession of a specialist's library; while the ponderous, expensive, and somewhat unreliable volumes of Le Vaillant were not only outside the reach of most, but represented an archaic form of the science. Consequently this book supplies a real want, as any traveller or collector in that now unsettled region will gratefully acknowledge.
The classification pursued is very largely an eclectic one, based upon the proposed systems of Messrs. Sclater and Sharpe; the plan and arrangement followed is that of Mr. Oates in the volumes on "Birds" in the 'Fauna of British India,' while a very welcome feature of the book is the quite unusual amount of information afforded under the heading "Habits." This subject should, and probably will, incite many observers to fresh efforts, for the bionomical story of the South African Birds is yet very largely to be told. Much has still also to be added to the distributional areas of the birds. Thus the so-called "Mountain Canary" (Alario alario), stated to be confined to Cape Colony and Great Namaqua Land, is also a sometime visitant to the Transvaal, the writer of this notice having still a living specimen of this constant songster which was captured more than six years ago near Pretoria.
Much information is given as to the nidification of the species, which by the descriptions and descriptive "keys" can be readily identified, though the volume only deals with about one-half of the Passerine Birds. We shall await the appearance of future volumes with the greatest interest, and the series will probably do the same for the fauna of South Africa as those edited by Mr. Blanford have done for the zoology of British India.
With commendable energy and promptitude Sir George Hampson has completed the second volume of his "Lepidoptera Phalænæ," the previous volume having been noticed in these pages last year (1899, p. 37). The present instalment contains 589 pages, the critical arrangement and description of no fewer than 1217 species, and, in addition to over 400 uncoloured figures in the text, there is also issued in a supplementary form eighteen excellently coloured plates.
When we estimate the amount of thorough work expended in this publication, based on the examination of nearly all available material, with its specific and generic revision, its keys to facilitate identification, and its ample references to geographical distribution, combined with the universality of its fauna, there can be little doubt we are receiving the most important entomological publication of the day. Of course views will, and must, differ on generic division; on specific differentiation probably the last word is said in many cases, and naturalists, as a rule, as well as lepidopterists in particular, should welcome the healthy specific synthesis that obtains in these pages.
We are inclined to appraise these works beyond the purely entomological standpoint. A directory may give the names and addresses of a population, but does not constitute the history of a people. If this is true of humanity, how equally certain is the application of the principle to other animals than man. The great conclusions that have been drawn from zoological studies—especially during the last fifty years—have been based on a nomenclature which has frequently misled and generally hampered the student who sought to philosophise on the teachings of specialists. According to one authority, a genus may be peculiar to an island; to another such a genus is considered as a synonym of one which ranges over more than a single continent. Some have actually been unable to treat a species as cosmopolitan, and have seized minute local characters for specific division; others have failed to see differences where such exist. It is thus evident that the right conclusions on zoo-geography depend upon some finality in nomenclature. Such a monograph as the present—for it is more than a catalogue—is the type of publication which, while assisting the lepidopterist, will prove a boon to the much distracted naturalist.
We have received this Descriptive Guide to the Collection of Corals on view at the South London Art Gallery, a collection lent for the purpose by Mr. John Morgan, of St. Leonards. We were quite surprised to find, instead of the usual type catalogue—as much at home with an exhibition of wax figures as a collection of zoological objects—a most readable pamphlet on life-histories of the polyps themselves. This small publication contains two good plates, some twenty-eight pages of printed matter, a reference to some "popular works on Corals," and is sold for one penny. With such a guide any person of average intelligence, though without a previous knowledge of the subject, can follow each specimen in the collection, and at the same time learn some of the mysteries of Coral existence. This is a very good move in a right direction.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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