BOOK NOTICES. 103 



multiply, but reduces sub-division. He abandons the old division oi ana 

 into venomous and non- venomous, rightly considering it unscientific. The 

 poison fang is in truth only a modification of a common tooth, and that 

 modification is carried to varieus degrees, reaching perfection in the Long 



erectile and perforated fang of the vipers. The fang of a cobra is a much less 

 finished instrument, but, for practical purposes, efficient, as we know. In 



other snakes, though tin' apparatus in an elementary form, is there, it is only 

 fitted to paralyse the small animals on which they feed, and these we pronoun 

 harmless. Mr. Bouiengcr calls them " suspected," and our readers will be 

 shocked to learn that DryopMs myderizahs, the slender, green whip snake, 

 whose gentle ways charm the most uncompromising serpent-hater, is a hypo- 

 crite and belongs, to this class. Of distinctly poisonous land snakes 3 i species 

 are enumerated, but many of these are only found in the Burmese region, and 

 others are too small to be dangerous to man. In this Presidency there are 

 only seven or eight, which can really be regarded as dangerous, and among 

 these there are only four which anybody is likely to have a chance of seeing 

 unless he searches for them diligently, namely, the cobra, Russell's viper, the 

 Krait (Bungarus coeruleus), and the abominable little • carpet-snake (Echis 

 carinata). The sea-snakes, which number 27 species, are all venomous ; but 

 they are as helpless on land as a piece of string, and in the water it must be a 

 very curious accident which can put a man in the way of being bitten by them . 

 As far as we know there is no case on record of death from the bite of a sea- 

 snake. 



We have said that the classification of snakes of this book is new. It follows, 

 that many well known names hive disappeared, and new ones have come in 

 their places. The king cobra is not Ophiophagus ehips, but Naia bungarus, 

 there being no good reason for putting it into a different genus from its younger 

 brother. So also our familiar friend — or enemy — Ddboia elegans, has become 

 Vipera russellii. The book closes with the frogs, toads, and newts. There is 

 only one newt, but there are 102 frogs and 17 toads, so completely have the 

 No's carried the day in the question of tails or no tails. We have complained 

 of the paucity of notes on habits, but among the frogs we light upon one too 

 many. After describing Bana tigrina, our great bullfrog, whose joyous 

 bassoon celebrates the advent of the monsoon, the author says : "It is essen- 

 tially aquatic, and is said, when frightened, to jump over the surface of the 

 water much in the same way as on land." The editor corrects this statement, and 

 indeed no one who had seen the great frog at home could have made it. Even 

 to say that ho is essentially aquatic is incorrect. He inhabits tanks and marshes. 

 but stays about their margins, and is more out of the water than in it. He 

 wanders freely about the garden in wet weather, and lies in wait for tender 

 chickens, which he will catch and swallow without much caring whether you 

 behove it or not. When he falls into a well he lives a very unhappy life, for he 

 cannot float with comfort. His legs hang down, and only his nose remains 



