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Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/115

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NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
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collections made during this expedition, which, we read, "have no claim to completeness, since they were not part of my special object; but new facts relating to such forms as Nautilus, Peripatus, Amphioxus, Ctenoplana, Balanoglossus, &c, cannot fail to possess a peculiar interest."

The opening memoir is by Dr. Willey on a species of Peripatus which he obtained in the island of New Britain. One interesting fact is here brought out, that whereas formerly, and based on our then knowledge, it was a conclusion that the species of Peripatus could be arranged in three groups in accordance with their geographical ranges—viz. Neotropical, Australasian, and Ethiopian—the new species constitutes the type of a new group which may be designated Melanesian. The biological strength of this paper is beyond the aim of our pages; but it is not by new species that this journey will be alone remembered. Some animals were procured which, though known to science, were unrepresented in our National collection, such as the rare marine Snake Aipysurus annulatus, and Prof. Studer's Echinoderm Astropyga elastica. The work, as we announced in these pages (1898, p. 376), will comprise five or six parts; and the first and second have as yet only just reached our hands. Consequently, at present, a detailed review is impossible. Already a good staff of naturalists have commenced to contribute; and the names of Arthur Willey, Paul Mayer, G.A. Boulenger, K.J. Pocock, D. Sharp, Sydney J. Hickson, F. Jeffrey Bell, F.P. Bedford, Arthur E. Shipley, J. Stanley Gardiner, F.G. Beddard, and Isa L. Hiles are guarantees of special work by specialists. The work is beautifully illustrated.


Wild Life at Home: How to Study and Photograph it. By R. Kearton, F.Z.S.Cassell & Co., Ltd.

The well-deserved success of the author's last work, 'With Nature and a Camera,' with its beautiful illustrations of animal life, has induced a wide-spread interest in the method of photographing glimpses of nature. In response to many enquiries, as we are told, the present book is intended to clear the way for the increasing number of those who wish rather to possess realistic photographs than the actual birds or nests. A "technical instructor"