Notice of British Quadrupeds.[1]
(Continued from p. 11).
In works of this kind there is little scope for originality, unless the author has been also an experienced and diligent observer; therefore when taking up any of our recent works on British Natural History, we feel scarcely authorized to treat them as original works, and rather incline to enquire what improvements have been made on the standard authorities. Indeed with some subjects certain names become so completely associated, that we feel disposed to deny the right of subsequent authors to interfere; we almost regard them as intruders. Although this feeling may possibly be carried to an illiberal excess, yet are we in every instance justified in comparing, with scrupulous accuracy, the new with the standard work. We know that these new histories must of necessity be compilations from the works of earlier authors; and we feel inclined to search, with some slight degree of severity, for the improvements and additions that have been incorporated. In British quadrupeds we regard Bingley's admirable and most amusing volume[2] as such an authority: it is a work overflowing with information, and one which we open with feelings of affection and gratitude for the instruction and happiness it afforded our boyish days. In the present instance we are bound to admit that the more recent work contains numerous and valuable additions, more particularly in the orders of Cheiroptera or bats, and Cetacea or whales, Bingley having recorded only five species of the former, and omitted all notice of the latter.
After an introductory chapter on bats, in which the subject is treated with considerable skill, Mr. Bell describes no less than seventeen species; the noctule (Vespertilio noctula), the hairy-armed bat (V. Leisleri), the particoloured bat (V. discolor), this and the preceding introduced on the authority of single specimens in the British Museum; the pipistrelle (V. pipistrellus), the pygmy bat (V. pygmceus), introduced on the authority of a specimen in the British Museum, which we believe is generally thought to be the young of another species; the serotine (V. serotinus), the mouse-coloured bat (V. murinus), a name formerly applied, and we think correctly, to the common bat of Britain; Bechstein's bat (V. Bechsteinii), Natterer's bat (V.
- ↑ A History of British Quadrupeds, including the Cetacea. By Thomas Bell, F.R.S., F.L.S., V.P.Z.S., &c. London: Van Voorst. 1837.
- ↑ Memoirs of British Quadrupeds. By the Rev. W. Bingley, M.A., F.L.S.
