The Zoologist/4th series, vol 4 (1900)/Issue 706/Notices of New Books
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
This is the account of a piece of real biological work, well conceived and admirably carried out. It is truly zoological, inasmuch as palæontology has not been neglected; and by the inclusion of botany it becomes in a proper sense a full account of the natural history of the island. Christmas Island is situated in the eastern part of the Indian Ocean, in S. lat. 10° 25', E. long. 105° 42'. Java, the nearest land, is about 190 miles to the north, while some 900 miles to the south-east is the coast of North-West Australia. Geologically, as Mr. Andrews describes it, "the island is, in fact, the flat summit of a submarine mountain more than 15,000 ft. high, the depth of the platform from which it rises being about 14,400 ft., and its height above the sea being upwards of 1000 ft." Sir John Murray defrayed the necessary expenses for the expedition, which was successfully carried out by Mr. Andrews, one of the staff of the British Museum.
Collections were made in all branches of natural history, and these, as a rule, have been worked out by specialists in their respective groups. Anthropology is alone discarded, but necessarily, for when visited by H.M.S. 'Egeria' in 1887, "the island was found to be entirely uninhabited, and there was no indication that it had ever been occupied."
Readers of this Journal will enjoy the bionomical notes of Mr. Andrews which are attached to the more technical references to many species. We can only notice a few. The Rat (Mus macleari) has for natural food mainly fruits and young shoots, and to obtain these it ascends trees to a great height. We read:— "I have often seen them run up the trailing stems of the lianas, and, in fact, they can climb as well as a squirrel. In the settlement they utterly destroy all the fruit they can get at, and frequently come into conflict with the fruit-bats on the tops of the papaia-trees." The Frigate-bird (Fregata aquila) forms an article of food for the inhabitants, and is easily captured. A man climbs "into the topmost branches of a high tree near the coast, armed with a pole eight or ten feet long and a red handkerchief. The latter he waves about, at the same time yelling as loud as possible. The birds attracted by the noise and the red colour swoop round in large numbers, when they are knocked down with the long pole." Fresh information is also recorded concerning our old friend the Robber Crab (Birgus latro). "They have a curious habit of often dragging their food long distances before attempting to eat it. I have seen a Crab laboriously pulling a bird's wing up the first inland cliff, half-a-mile or more from the camp whence it had stolen it."
The geographical relations of the fauna and flora are mostly Indo-Malayan, and, although a large number of species are described as endemic, especially among the insects, this is probably owing to the entomological fauna of the neighbouring islands being still imperfectly known. The volume is well illustrated with twenty-two plates, a map, and numerous cuts in the text, and worthily upholds the character of British Museum publications.
Part I. of this excellent memoir appeared in 1896, and Part VIII., concluding it, was published last year. It altogether relates to the atoll of Funafuti, which was discovered by Capt. Peyster on March 18th, 1819. According to the observations of Capt. Wilkes, it lies in lat. 8° 30' 45" south, long. 179° 13' 30" east,—"a position which may otherwise be described as due north of Fiji, and precisely half way between that and the Equator."
Part I. is devoted to a general account of the atoll, its structure, climate, vegetation, and population, the last topic being necessarily more or less ethnological, but its ethnology is treated also alone in Part IV., and these sections are all from the pen of Mr. Hedley. Some short notes on rock specimens are contributed by Dr. T. Cooksey. Aves are described by Mr. J. North, but as the ornithological collection consisted of only "six specimens, referable to four well-known Australian species," there was not much to write about. The interesting fact of the Frigate-bird (Fregata aquila) being domesticated by the natives and used as a carrier bird is, however, thoroughly dealt with. The Insecta and Arachnidæ have been studied by Mr. W.J. Rainbow, and the Crustacea and Echinodermata by Mr. T. Whitelegge, who has also dealt with the Alcyonaria, Sponges, Madreporaria, Hydrozoa, Scyphozoa, Actinozoa, and Vermes. Mammals, Reptiles, and Fishes have been detailed by Mr. Edgar R. Waite. "Excluding the birds, the indigenous terrestrial vertebrate fauna appears to be comprised in five species—a Rat and four Lizards." The Enteropneusta, which comprised two species, form a subject for truly biological treatment by Mr. Jas. P. Hill, and the Mollusca are naturally taken in hand by Mr. Hedley, who is the Conchologist of the Australian Museum.
In a summary of the fauna we read: "Prior to the advent of the Expedition, not more than eight species of animals were recorded in literature from Funafuti"; these published lists now "embrace about eight hundred and fifty entries." Zoologists will congratulate all concerned on the good work done, and those who study zoo-geography will value the volume.
Nansen's voyage in the 'Fram' is well known to the many English readers who have perused 'Farthest North.' But, beyond geographical exploration, natural science was also deeply interested in this boreal expedition, and the results achieved are now receiving publication in a handsome and complete form, of which the first volume is before us.
The first contribution is by Dr. Pompeckj, on "The Jurassic fauna of Cape Flora," which, as Nansen informs us, "situated in circ. 79° 56' N. lat. and circ. 49° 40' E. long., is the western extremity of the long and narrow peninsula which forms the south-western part of Northbrook Island." Unfortunately the fossils examined were generally in a very imperfect condition, but some complete work even under these circumstances was accomplished, and a fauna of at least twenty-six forms demonstrated as occurring in the Jurassic Sedimentary Rocks collected by Nansen in the Cape Flora district. Among the peculiar features of the fauna may be just mentioned the "prominent part which the Ammonite genus Cadoceras plays in its composition"; while in all the known fossils from the marine jura of Cape Flora, the Gastropoda are represented by a single specimen only. The Callovian fauna Dr. Pompeckj reports as "nothing but a part of the fauna of the Russian Callovian."
The description of the "Fossil Plants" are outside the province of this Journal, and we pass on to an account of the "Birds," by Prof. Collett and Dr. Nansen, the first named of whom has contributed the strictly ornithological matter, while the second has added personal observations. This contribution is eminent by a very full account of the Roseate Gull (Rhodostethia rosea), referred to in more than one place, and in its juvenile first plumage forming the subject for a very beautiful chromo plate.
The Crustacea are described by Prof. Sars, and, when this excellent authority receives sufficient material, we all expect a banquet in biological information, and we are not here disappointed. We read: "As is well known, it has until recently been the general assumption of geographers, that the Polar basin, north of Siberia and Franz Josef Land, could only be quite a shallow sea, with depths scarcely exceeding some hundred fathoms, and the zoological equipment of the 'Fram' Expedition was arranged in accordance therewith. But, in direct contradiction to this generally adopted view, that part of the Polar Sea through which the 'Fram' drifted with the ice proved to be everywhere of enormous depth, exceeding in this respect even the Norwegian Sea." Although it is probable that there is very little animal life on the bottom in this part of the ocean, it was remarked that the more superficial strata of the sea, though almost perpetually covered with a layer of ice, were found to abound with life, at all seasons, and in the most northerly altitudes reached. But Prof. Sars is of opinion that these pelagic animals are not strictly confined to the more superficial strata of the sea, "but that they also at times descend to considerable depths, perhaps even to the strata immediately covering the bottom." Forms also hitherto regarded as southern in distribution have been found in the Polar Sea; in the pelagic Copepoda, a Calanoid, of the genus Hemicalanus, hitherto only recorded from the Mediterranean and the tropical parts of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, being a case in point. Thirty-six plates illustrate this contribution.
It is perhaps as difficult to imagine a science of zoology divorced from the past in palæontology, as a form of theology without any reference to a future existence, or a history strictly confined to modern events alone. Palaeontology is one of the great witnesses to the truth of organic evolution, which we all regard as the philosophy of natural history.
This is not merely a translation, but rather an adaptation of Zittel's 'Grundzüge der Palaeontologie,' for though the chapters on Protozoa and Coelenterata stand essentially as in the original, "nearly all the remaining chapters have been remodelled, enlarged, and brought as nearly as possible up to date by a selected body of experts." The 'Grundzüge' itself was published as recently as the spring of 1895, and, although radical departures have been made with the author's sanction, "one must by no means presume he is thereby committed to all the innovations which are set forth." No fewer than twelve collaborators have assisted the editor, so that a "new and revised edition" is perhaps necessary to be added to the term "translation."
The present volume is devoted to what are usually considered "the lower forms of life." Seven "Sub-Kingdoms"—to use the term employed—are described, viz.: Protozoa, Coelenterata, Echinodermata, Vermes, Molluscoidea, Mollusca, and Arthropoda, the Vertebrata being reserved for the next volume. In the introduction we are reminded how even in palaeontology we have advanced beyond the Linnæan and Cuvierian conceptions, when we read: "Those holding to the theory of descent, evolution, or transmutation, look upon varieties, species, subgenera, genera, families, orders, classes, and sub-kingdoms, as distinctions of merely transient importance, corresponding to the state of our information at the present time; it being assumed that by means of gradual transmutation during the course of ages all organisms have become evolved from a single primitive cell, or from a few primitive types."
This excellent German work, made accessible to the strictly English reader under purely American supervision, forms a work of reference that zoologists will find most useful to consult. Even with its more than 700 pages of letterpress, containing 1476 figures, its subject matter is very far from exhausted, and its value lies in its summarized information. This is evident when we refer to the Insecta, revised by no less than the greatest palæontological authority on the subject, Prof. S.H. Scudder, and find that the information is compressed in ten pages. Those who are familiar with the palæontological writings on this subject by Prof. Scudder alone will not fail to comprehend that even this portly volume is but a digest of the ancient history of animal life.
However much in our daily life we may somewhat avoid the too practical man, there can be little doubt we want more practical zoologists. The average naturalist to-day is perhaps concerned overmuch with the outsides of animals, and a very large proportion indeed of conclusions and theories are based on animal appearances. Surface zoology in a strict sense should rank very little higher than surface geology; but how few of us have now either the time, opportunity, or desire for undertaking even ordinary dissection. This volume is an incentive to make us really understand all that can be practically learned about a few typical animals, and the thorough mastery of the anatomical and physiological details of these living forms will leaven the whole lump of many zoological conceptions. In fact, as the author states—for one only is now left—"Throughout the book I have borne in mind that the main object of teaching zoology as a part of a liberal education is to familiarise the student not so much with the facts as with the ideas of the science."
The first thirteen chapters are devoted to the Frog; attention is then paid to some of the most primitive forms of animal life, after which the objects of study are those familiar "zoological models," the Earthworm, the Crayfish, and the Fresh-water Mussel. A few illustrations of the Vertebrata follow, and the concluding chapter is chiefly of an embryological character. In the summary of views respecting the subject of organic evolution we meet with an advice which we do not remember having seen elsewhere:—"As a preliminary to the study of Darwin's 'Origin of Species,' the student is recommended to read Romanes' 'Evidences of Organic Evolution,' in which the doctrine of Descent is expounded as briefly as is consistent with clearness and accuracy."
During a period of twenty-two years Miss Ormerod has issued her Annual Reports on Injurious Insects. The quantity of valuable information, thus one may almost say interred, except to the diligent readers of these reports, is now accessible to all by the publication of an excellent index compiled by Mr. Robert Newstead, himself well acquainted with the subject.
The twenty-third Report for 1899 commences a second series, and is in no way inferior to its predecessors. Miss Ormerod's "study" must be a veritable "Scotland Yard" for insect depredators. Here an account is kept of all previous convictions, and the names, habits, and life-histories of all these agricultural criminals are accurately recorded and regularly published, while the most speedy and convenient methods for their destruction are studied and advised. We fear, however, that these annual reports are not sufficiently procured by our agriculturists, fruit-growers, and foresters, to whom they should prove indispensable; while all who take an interest in a garden—"and who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too"—will find aid in its pages to resist the attacks of many enemies. We sometimes scarcely estimate the size of these insect hordes which ravage our crops. One of Miss Ormerod's correspondents, a head-schoolmaster, relates that during the late season, when the larvæ of White Cabbage Butterflies made dreadful havoc among the cabbages and similar plants, he put two boys at a time during their dinner-hour, in his small garden of about a quarter of an acre, with a net to catch these butterflies, of which in seven days they caught and killed no fewer than 834. Again, from two hundred and forty plants the boys gathered more than 5000 caterpillars.
Insects alone do not curtail Miss Ormerod's work, and in this issue we have a most interesting account of the Snail-Slug (Testacella haliotidea), an animal which is labelled (Beneficial) "ridding us of small ground vermin; they are wholly carnivorous, and prey chiefly on Earthworms, but also on Slugs and Snails, and even on each other."
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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