REVIEWS 34i 



exterminating them. The introduction of medicines into the crops of birds by 

 means of a catheter is neat and practical. The round worms and flukes of the 

 alimentary tract are also described. Maladies of the respiratory system, including 

 catarrh, bronchitis, croup, influenza, the various forms of roup (which cause much 

 loss), canker, aspergillosis, and the air-sac mite disease are all discussed. Some of 

 the treatments for roup in use in England, such as that by hydrogen peroxide, 

 however, are not noted. 



Very practical hints on the prevention and treatment of diseases due to external 

 parasites — bird-lice, mites, ticks, fleas and eye-worms — are given, and the chapter 

 is well illustrated. The same applies to the chapter dealing with skin diseases. 

 To those poultrymen concerned chiefly with egg production, the interesting 

 accounts of the maladies of the reproductory organs will appeal. Other maladies 

 and sundry deformations are noted, so that a comprehensive survey of the various 

 affections of poultry is comprised in the book. 



The book can be recommended as a very practical contribution to the well- 

 being of the poultry industry. 



F. 



Memoirs of the Indian Museum. Vol. V. Fauna of the Chilka Lake. No. 2, 

 October 191 5. (Calcutta : Published by order of the Trustees of the Indian 

 Museum, 191 5. Price Rs. 3-8.) 



The Memoirs of the Indian Museum are now sufficiently well known to those 

 interested in the Fauna of India. The fifth volume is devoted to a consideration 

 of the Fauna of Lake Chilka. In this, the second part, the Mysidacea (Dr. 

 Tattersall), the Mammals, Reptiles and Batrachians (Dr. Annandale), the Aquatic 

 insects other than Coleoptera (Dr. Annandale and Mr. Kemp), the Odonata 

 (Mr. Laidlaw), and the Stomatopoda (Mr. Kemp) are dealt with. One of the 

 most interesting features of this part is the bionomics, the notes for which are 

 furnished by Dr. Annandale and Mr. Kemp. Of the sections under review the 

 non-professional reader will turn naturally to the account of the mammals, reptiles 

 and batrachians. No new species are described in these groups, but there is much 

 information about their habits and distribution within the lake area. The snakes 

 represent an essentially estuarine element in the fauna of the lake. Of the 

 crocodiles both the common crocodiles of India (Crocodilus palustris) and the 

 "gharial" (Gavialis gangeticus) are present ; the latter record, if correct, marks an 

 extension of the previously recorded southern limit (the Mahanaddi river-system) 

 of this species in the Bay of Bengal. On the whole the herpetological fauna of 

 the lake is estuarine. Most of the species are of wide distribution and there is no 

 endemic element. The fauna is Peninsular, as opposed to Indo-Gangetic. Apart 

 from the Coleoptera, the aquatic insects of the lake include at least twenty species, 

 the majority belonging to the Rhynchota. Only a very small minority of these 

 insects can be regarded as anything but casual visitors ; they are for the most part 

 immigrants from fresh water and drift or fly into or on to the lake from neighbour- 

 ing tanks or rice-fields. The chief factor influencing immigration is the periodic 

 growth and decay of a species of Potamogeton that forms dense submerged thickets 

 during the dry season in sheltered bays of the main area of the lake, dying down 

 almost completely in the rains. The Stomatopoda of the lake are represented by 

 two species and one variety of the genus Squilla. 



There is an immense field for bionomic studies in India, and it is to be hoped 

 that what Annandale has done to stimulate interest in this subject may lead to 

 more extensive and intensive work not only in Lake Chilka but in other selected 



