Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/354

328 and mammals. "It seems to me, therefore, that in some of the minute primitive forms, as old as the Devonian, if not still more ancient, we may yet find the key to the great mystery of the origin of mammals." Mr. Sedgwick pointed out the necessity of remembering the decided imperfection of the geological record, and the doubt as to whether we shall ever find the past evidences of early organic evolution. Prof. Hubrecht predicted that one great battlefield in the future of this controversy would be over the question whether mammals other than Monotremes had descended from oviparous ancestors. Such authoritative opinions more truly canonize a Congress than the ancient practice of formulating dogmas.

Prof. Haeckel's paper on "Our Present Knowledge of the Descent of Man" has already been noticed in these pages (ante, p. 82), and this referred more or less to the "Remarks upon the Brain-cast of Pithecanthropus erectus," by Dr. Eug. Dubois. It is, however, impossible here to give a digest of the various contents of the volume, which embraces "Recent Legislation on the Protection of Wild Birds in Great Britain," and so technical a subject as a long correspondence on the "Nomenclature of Lepidoptera." It is a publication which may indeed be called "advanced zoology," which sufficiently repays the long journeys made by some of the delegates to Cambridge; and, further, is a more than creditable testimony to the unusual secretarial energy which marked this Congress.

second edition of this indispensable vade-mecum will be hailed with delight by all who take an interest in British birds. The number of books published on this subject cannot be considered few, but many are sketchy, some of an anecdotal character, others containing unverified records, or not including occasional visitors. None of these remarks can be alleged against a volume that gives the experience of a life-long attachment to ornithology, combined with the critical faculty of sifting evidence. This