Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/103

Rh those of us who were once there, but without a publication like the present, which would have supplied a long-felt want. We trust that Mr. Sclater will soon produce his second volume.

principal portion of the pages of this last report—just received—is occupied by a posthumous communication by the late Dr. Cope, which extends over one thousand pages, is fully illustrated, and is a worthy legacy by a great palaeontologist and evolutionist now no longer with us. As is well known. Dr. Cope held his own views on evolution, and was neither swayed by modern theories, nor influenced by opinions which had obtained a present currency but not necessarily the assurance of a future canonization. It is not our province to advocate his evolutionary views; it is, however, our duty to more or less express them. In this treatise they are not too pronounced, and may be found in his preface. In these days, when it is the vogue to express generic resemblances as always due to the phenomenon of mimicry, it is perhaps well to remember that the explanation is at least of not universal acceptance. Thus Dr. Cope writes:—"I long since pointed out that generic characters may, and in fact generally do, arise in the process of evolution quite independently of the specific, so that certain species of different genera resemble each other in the so-called "natural," that is, specific characters, more than they do other species of their own genus. ... It is not, then, remarkable that sometimes one or more species of two or more genera should parallel each other."

It would, however, be a misrepresentation to lead a reader or student to suppose that this publication is of a speculative character. It is, on the contrary, a very fully descriptive monograph on the Crocodilians, Lizards, and Snakes of North America, in which the taxonomic features far exceed the bionomic details, and absolutely supplant theoretic speculations. It is, however, rare to find any zoological publication without some information that supports or minimises some evolutionary conceptions.