Abstract
THE favourable opinion we formed of Mr. Finn's work when the first part was noticed last year in NATURE we are pleased to be able to endorse now that the complete volume is before us. The book is confessedly a thoroughly popular one, and, therefore, ought to be judged solely from that standard; and from that point of view it may be pronounced a decided success. The author's style of writing is bright and attractive; and in the main his descriptions appear correct and up to date. Mr. Finn has not overloaded his text with names of naturalists and observers about whom the public knows little or nothing; and he has, in our opinion for the most part rightly, altogether ignored subspecies. As regards nomenclature, the author will have nothing to do with modern innovations and changes, and we accordingly find the baboons (and not the flying-lemur) appearing under their old title of Cynocephalus, and the fox as Canis vulpes. The fact that such names still dominate in popular literature suggests that they should not, as is now too much the fashion, be ignored in our museums, which are primarily popular institutions.
Wild Beasts of the World.
By Frank Finn. Pp. viii + 188; illustrated. (London and Edinburgh: T. C. and E. C. Jack, 1908–9.) Price 17s. net.
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L., R. Wild Beasts of the World . Nature 81, 332 (1909). https://doi.org/10.1038/081332a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/081332a0