[A] The Last Link. Our Present Knowledge of the Descent of Kan. By Ernst Haeckel. Adam and Charles Black. 1898.
[B] Rivers of North America. A Reading Lesson for Students of Geography and Geology. By Israel C. Russell. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 327. Price, $2.
An unfulfilled intention entertained by two successive prosectors of the London Zoölogical Society--the late Professor Garrod and the late W. A. Forbes--of writing a treatise on bird anatomy, is carried out in the present work[A] by their successor, _Frank E. Beddard_. Professor Garrod had nearly completed an account of the Anatomy of the Fowl, which was to be followed by a presentation of the anatomical characters of the different groups. Professor Forbes died before he was able to add anything to the manuscripts left by Professor Garrod. In the instance of the present work the detailed account of _Gallus_, with which Professor Garrod intended to preface his book, has been rendered unnecessary by Dr. Shufeldt's monograph on the Raven, dealing with one particular bird type. Accepting this as a sufficient presentation of that feature of the subject, Mr. Beddard begins with a general sketch of bird structure, purposely avoiding histological detail and the elaborate description of anatomical facts, which in the present state of our knowledge are not of great use in classification. The main part of the book is the account of the structure of the different groups of birds, which is treated of to a considerable extent; and a large number of facts, some of which are recorded for the first time, are incorporated in the systematic part of the book. While all the principal facts pertaining to the subject are believed to have been given, and nothing of importance to have been left out, references are made in each section to most of the memoirs already published. The majority of the facts of bird structure have been verified by the author, especially those relating to osteology and anatomy, and he has drawn liberally on the notebooks of his two predecessors. The book gives first an account of the general structure of birds; next of the reproductive and renal organs, the circulatory, respiratory, and muscular systems, osteology, brain and nervous system, and affinities of birds, and, finally, the classification.