Abstract
THIS attractive work was issued ten 3'ears ago by Dr. and Mrs. Davenport, and it has now passed into a revised edition. In the interval the author has taken charge of the Carnegie Institute for Experimental Evolution and of the Brooklyn Institute Laboratory at Long' Island, and he is consequently well qualified to introduce changes in the work that reflect to some extent the advance of zoological knowledge so far as it affects an elementary text-book. The chief feature of the work is the abundance and excellence of the illustrations. Scarcely less striking than the figures are the suggestive and interesting remarks on the habits and behaviour of the examples selected. Therf is little plan or sequence in the chapters. Each of them consists of an isolated studv of some particular topic associated with a given form of animal life. By some curious oversight only one-half of the selected forms are figured, though illustrations of related forms occur in abundance, and there are, in addition, photographs of the localities in which the chosen animals may be found. The work is so attractive and will be so useful to teachers who wish to organise nature-study courses that we are loth to point out the few blemishes that we have noticed. Darwin, however, would object to be quoted as saying (p. 171), or rather writing “mold” for mould, and “plow” for plough. The Ranidaei occur over Africa, and are not limited, as suggested on p. 348, to the northern hemisphere and East Indies. The spotted salamander figured on P 335 is called “A urode,” a name which is certain to cause trouble and misunderstanding, as are many other curious vernacular names, such as “sow-bug” for Oniscus, “basket-fish” for branched Ophiuroids, “tumble-bugs” for the large dung-beetles, the “underwing” for Catocala, “spring azure” for blue Lycasnas, and many others. Probably in the States these difficulties will not occur. We can heartily recommend this book.
Elements of Zoology; to accompany the Field and Laboratory Study of Animals.
By Dr. Charles B. Davenport Gertrude C. Davenport. Revised edition. Pp. x + 508. (New York: The Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1911.) Price 5s. 6d. net.
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Elements of Zoology; to accompany the Field and Laboratory Study of Animals . Nature 87, 75 (1911). https://doi.org/10.1038/087075b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/087075b0