Abstract
THIS small work will be found particularly serviceable to many working naturalists. It is a concise compilation of the sub-kingdoms, classes, and orders of the animal kingdom, with lists of the families and most important genera. Specialists will be able to find fault with some of the details in many cases, nevertheless we know no volume which, in the space, contains so much reliable information. The larger groups are all succinctly defined, with many of the most modern views incorporated; and these definitions extend to the orders. Taking the mammalia for criticism, we regret to find the Sirenia included with the Cetacea, the Musk Deer with the Chevrotains, the Peccaries with the true Swine, and the Camels between the Giraffe and the other typical ruminating animals. The caecum is not “enormous”in Hyrax. “Whatever gaps there may be at the present day” between the Perrissodactyla and Artiodactyla “are not nearly all filled in by numerous extinct forms.” Such errors may be found in many places; they do not, however, much detract from the general value of the work, which will be found more valuable as a basis for annotation, than a book of reference. There is a very complete index we are glad to say.
Zoological Classification.
By F. C. Pascoe (John Van Voorst, 1877.)
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Zoological Classification . Nature 16, 82 (1877). https://doi.org/10.1038/016082b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/016082b0