102 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1891. 



as it might have been. If this is the result of editorial " compression," then 

 Mr. Boulenger lias our sympathy, for he has been squeezed much drier than 

 Dr. Day or, Mr. Oates. But we are more disposed to think that We see in this 

 booh nothing but the natural result of those eight years spent at the treadmill 

 of catalogue-making in the British Museum. We have yet one fault to find 

 with the book, for which both author and editor must be held responsible, and 

 that is the Want of a glossary of technical terms. There is no attempt at such 

 ;•< thing. There are indeed some diagrams of skeletons, in winch the names of 

 the different bones are given, but these are troublesome to refer to and quite 

 insufficient. Let us take a few examples. Wo are studying the frogs, and 

 read that the Bdnidoe may be distinguished from the Engyst&mtdas by the dila- 

 tion of the Diapophyses of the saoral vertebrae. A tolerably liberal education 

 has left us still ignorant of the precise nature of a Diapophysis ; Ave turn to the 

 diagram hi vain ; We must evolve it from our inner consciousness. Further on 

 we meet vath Zygapophyses, Choame, Canthus Eostralis and many more. A 

 glossary explaining all these would scarcely have added two leaves to the bulk 

 of the book, and might have survived the severest compression. So much for 

 the faults of the book. As we said, it has its merits, and they are solid ones. 

 Beginning with the crocodiles, Mr. Boulenger describes three species only, 

 regarding Porosus and Pondicerianus as the same. This species, he says, has not 

 been recorded from the west coast of India. Our Mugger is G. Pal list ris. The 

 third is of course the Gavial, Gavialis gangeticus, of which he remarks that it feeds 

 entirely on fish, for seizing which its narrow jaws are specially adapted. This 

 is certainly the generally received opinion, but what of that specimen whose 

 gigantic skeleton adorns the Victoria and Albert Museum, which was shot 

 while feeding on the body of a Woman ? A number of bangles and other orna- 

 ments, said to have been found in its stomach, used to be exhibited in a bottle 

 beside it, but some visitor thought he could put them to a better use than the 

 gratification of idle curiosity, and they disappeared. Passing on to the 

 tortoises and turtles, the author describes 44 species, of which the " soup" 

 turtle, the fresh water tortoise, which natives are so fond of introducing into 

 our wells, and the land tortoise, found commonly hi Guzerat, are probably the 

 only ones that most of us have seen. The majority inhabit the Burmese region. 

 The lizards, numbering 222 species, come next, and are divided into eight 

 families, four of which contain familiar forms, the Gechonidce, or house Geckos, 

 the Agamidce, to which belongs the garden " bloodsucker," the Varwridw, or 

 monitors, and the Sa'iicidce or skinks, of which one species at least often steals 

 into our houses, with its gentle, snake-like motion, in search of ants and other 

 insects. The classification of the snakes in this volume is new, and though we 

 cannot but think that the worst system of classification would bo better than 

 the licence which in these days permits any man who writes a book to remove 

 all ancient landmarks and become his own Linnaeus, we must admit that the 

 changes introduced by Mr. Boulenger are in the right direction. He does not 



