The Zoologist/4th series, vol 3 (1899)/Issue 697/Notices of New Books
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
The meeting of the fourth International Congress of Zoology in England was the most important scientific event in the zoological annals of last year. It is possible that the published proceedings of a Congress do not altogether represent the work achieved, for if in the multitude of counsellors there is wisdom, there is also the creative impulse that potentially exists wherever real workers and students are gathered together. It is thus frequently that the most important results of a Congress are not incorporated in published Proceedings. It still remains, however, that this volume is zoologically a most valuable one, and that perhaps not by the record of any new discovery, but by the detailed discussions on many knotty points. We may instance that on the position of Sponges in the animal kingdom opened by Prof. Yves Delage. Up to the end of the first half of the nineteenth century it was still an open question whether Sponges were plants or animals. In the discussion on the origin of mammals, Prof. Seeley inclined to a reptilian derivation. "The remains thus far discovered in Permian rocks show so near an approach of the higher reptiles to the lower mammals, that it is reasonable to believe that the interval between them is now so small that it may be obliterated by future discoveries." Prof. Osborn, of New York, referring to the Permian records and the temptation to connect the herbivorous section of Anomodonts with the Monotremes, considered the many striking points of resemblance between these reptiles and mammals as due to parallelism, similar characters having been independently acquired. Prof. Marsh—who is, alas! no longer with us—held to the opinion that in the amphibians, especially in the oldest forms, there are hints of a true relationship with both reptiles and mammals. "It seems to me, therefore, that in some of the minute primitive forms, as old as the Devonian, if not still more ancient, we may yet find the key to the great mystery of the origin of mammals." Mr. Sedgwick pointed out the necessity of remembering the decided imperfection of the geological record, and the doubt as to whether we shall ever find the past evidences of early organic evolution. Prof. Hubrecht predicted that one great battlefield in the future of this controversy would be over the question whether mammals other than Monotremes had descended from oviparous ancestors. Such authoritative opinions more truly canonize a Congress than the ancient practice of formulating dogmas.
Prof. Haeckel's paper on "Our Present Knowledge of the Descent of Man" has already been noticed in these pages (ante, p. 82), and this referred more or less to the "Remarks upon the Brain-cast of Pithecanthropus erectus," by Dr. Eug. Dubois. It is, however, impossible here to give a digest of the various contents of the volume, which embraces "Recent Legislation on the Protection of Wild Birds in Great Britain," and so technical a subject as a long correspondence on the "Nomenclature of Lepidoptera." It is a publication which may indeed be called "advanced zoology," which sufficiently repays the long journeys made by some of the delegates to Cambridge; and, further, is a more than creditable testimony to the unusual secretarial energy which marked this Congress.
The second edition of this indispensable vade-mecum will be hailed with delight by all who take an interest in British birds. The number of books published on this subject cannot be considered few, but many are sketchy, some of an anecdotal character, others containing unverified records, or not including occasional visitors. None of these remarks can be alleged against a volume that gives the experience of a life-long attachment to ornithology, combined with the critical faculty of sifting evidence. This of course can be sifted too finely sometimes, but perhaps a large mesh seems the best net for enclosing ornithological narratives.
The first edition was completed in November, 1889, and then enumerated 367 species considered as British. In this edition the total is raised to 384, and some of the new additions will be familiar to the readers of this magazine. Of the 384 species described, "those which have bred within the United Kingdom during the present century may be taken as 199 (if the extinct Great Auk is included); about 74 non-breeding wanderers have occurred fewer than six times, and 66 others are more or less infrequent visitors; while 45 species annually make their appearance on migration or during the colder months, in some portion of our long narrow group of islands or upon the surrounding waters." A too insular standpoint for studying our British avine fauna is negatived by the inclusion of three coloured maps. The first and second are bathy-orographical of the British Isles and Europe respectively, showing the comparative elevation of the land in the United Kingdom, and the depth of the surrounding seas; the third is a North Polar Chart to facilitate the enquiry into the range of the birds which breed in the Arctic regions.
We need say nothing further of a book of which a first edition of three thousand copies was exhaused in eight years. Apart from the ornithological bookshelf, it is a volume that should also be in every school and village library in these islands.
We seem to hear too little now of the natural history of such a glorious county as Devonshire, and certainly so in the pages of the 'Zoologist.' For years it was the home of Montagu. It is, as Mr. Dixon remarks, rich in species so far as sedentary birds are concerned. "But the same can scarcely be said of migratory species, the county being very unfavourably situated for them. Indeed, next to Cornwall, I should feel inclined to class Devonshire as the poorest littoral county in England for normal migratory birds, lying, as it does, too far to the south-west." But, as we all know, "so far as abnormal migrants are concerned, Devonshire can compare favourably with any other county."
This book is not a monograph of the birds of Devonshire, it does not describe the contents of cabinet drawers, but details the observations of a field ornithologist; it is an avian handbook for the county, and, as such, should be procured and read. We are glad to find that the Peregrine Falcon is still indigenous to Devonshire. "Notwithstanding almost ceaseless persecution, the bird somehow manages to hold its ground, and eyries are situated here and there along the coast." Mr. Dixon is very optimistic as to the little destructive effect on some main features of our avian fauna made by the construction of railway lines. He instances the many birds to be seen close to the line as the train rushes through Devonshire, an observation we have made ourselves both in that county and abroad. He concludes: "there can be little doubt that railways would never have exterminated the Great Bustard from the open wolds and plains, and its absence must be ascribed to far more direct causes." Alas! for two of our old Devonshire friends, the Chough and the Jackdaw. The first is not now known by the author to have any breeding station on the south coast, and "whether the species will ever again recover itself in the county seems doubtful." The decrease of the Jackdaw may possibly be attributed to the numbers shot by the owners of Pigeons, which are attacked by the Daws.
The volume is full of interesting ornithological facts and observations; but how can either author or publisher imagine that such a publication unprovided with an index can ever serve a referential purpose?
Mr. Vaughan Kirby is well known as an experienced and successful hunter of South African animals, and, although the sportsman appears in the pages of the above work in rather an inverse ratio to that of the naturalist, we still obtain much of that zoological information which can only be procured by those who have the health, inclination, and opportunity to wander, rifle in hand, in quest of wild beasts in a wild country. To the zoological reader the crack of the rifle and the details of the death of the victim are perhaps rather too much in evidence; we would rather have more particulars of the animal's life than description of the method of his quitting it. However, all learning is by much travail, zoology not being an exception to the rule; and the careful reader will find very many natural history records not obtainable elsewhere, many corroborations of traditional statements, and some corrections of hearsay information. Thus we read of the Crocodiles as found near Chinde:—"They may often be seen lying fast asleep on the sand-banks with their jaws open; and the disputed fact can be verified by any observer with a pair of field-glasses, that the Spur-winged Plovers not only warn the Crocodiles of the approach of danger by their plaintive cries, but act as tooth-picks for the saurians, picking out what are evidently considered dainty bits from between the great teeth."
An Appendix of Zoological Field Notes concludes the volume. Mr. Kirby is as a rule unable to detect any difference between the Lion of Central and that of South Africa, though he thinks "male Lions with dark skins (dark grey or brown shaded) and full black or blackish brown manes occur less frequently north than south of the Zambesi." Seasonal colouration appears to obtain in the Eland (Taurotragus oryx). "The colour of Elands in Central Africa varies much in individuals, especially in the winter time, when many shades of yellow, dun, and tawny may be observed, as well as darker shades inclining to deep slatecolour amongst the old bulls. During the rains, when their hides are sleeker, a tawny dun predominates among the cows and young animals, while the bulls become darker." This is a book in which much interesting information will be never used, as it lacks an index.