Reports on zoology for 1843, 1844 / Translated from the German by George Busk ... Alfred Tulk, esq., and Alexander H. Haliday. Esq.

  • Ray Society
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reports on zoology for 1843, 1844 / Translated from the German by George Busk ... Alfred Tulk, esq., and Alexander H. Haliday. Esq. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    14/640 page 2
    2 Hefte. 4. (Monographs of the Mammalia, with figures drawn from Nature, and the best works on Natural History, by Kull, &c.) The author proposes to exhibit the species of Mammalia monographically, in descriptions and coloured figures. The first part treats of the genera, Macroscelides, Ailurus, Thylacinus, and Myrmecobius; the second part, of the Rhinoceros species. Neither part contains anything new; the figures, mostly copies, are well executed. If the work proceeds with certainty and rapidity, it will prove very useful in facilitating the determination of species in col¬ lections. Chr. v. Trautwetter has attempted, in his c Novum Systema Theriologi- cum,5 also a new systematic arrangement of the Mammalia and Birds. (Bullet, de la Soc. de Moscou, 1843, p. 448.) Lesson, Moeurs, Instinct et Singularity de la Vie des Ani- maux mammiferes. Paris, 1842. This memoir is intended to refer only to those species which were un¬ known to Buffon, or respecting which he had but incorrect information. The most common sources only have been here referred to; and the work will certainly not bear comparison with ScheitliiTs ‘ Thierseelenkunde.5 Observations on the Classification of the Mammalia. By G. It. Waterhouse. (Ann. Nat. Hist, xii, p. 399.) The orders of Mammalia are represented by circles, which Waterhouse attempts to group in such a way that they may correspond to the mutual alliances of the orders. I place no especial importance in systematic ex¬ positions of this kind, since they never completely answer their professed object. Thus, in the present instance for example, the Carnivora and Pachy- dermata border upon each other, although anything but a transition is pre¬ sented by the Hog, which is indicated as a connecting link; on the other hand, the former are widely separated from the Marsupiata, although a mani¬ fest transition between these classes exists. Since every order is connected with others on various sides, it is not possible to exhibit correctly in a figurative expression the real affinities, or even merely the analogies, which exist between these divisions. This can be done clearly and completely only in words. Series of Propositions for rendering the Nomenclature of Zoology uniform and permanent, being the Beport of a Com¬ mittee for the consideration of the subject, appointed by the British Association for the Advancement of Science. (Ann. Nat. Hist, xi, p. 259.) A useful and laudable endeavour on the part of the British Association to
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