Neio Ptiblications. 403 



known tribes of Tortoise, Crocodile, and Enalsosauri. The 

 practical zoologist, and those also who cultivate the geological 

 history of fossil organic remains, will find it a most useful guide. 

 Mr Gray gives the following amusing account of his volume : — 

 " The collection of reptiles of the British Museum, the College 

 of Surgeons, and Mr Bell, have furnished the basis of this 

 work. The two first of these collections contain many of the 

 species which have been described by Dr Shaw ; the College 

 of Surgeons contains the tortoises which were in the Leverian 

 Museum ; but, in the part now published, I am most indebted 

 to the kindness of Mr Bell, whose collection of tortoises far ex- 

 ceeds that of any museum in Europe, and whose Hberality, in 

 allowing me the use of it, I cannot too highly appreciate. It is 

 to be hoped that his monograph, for which he has collected 

 them, and for which he has kept and had drawn alive more than 

 two-thirds of the known species, will shortly appear. 



" To rendei- the collection of species as complete, and the syno- 

 nyma as correct as possible, every opportunity has been taken, 

 during my visits to the continental museums, to examine and 

 take notes of the individual specimens which have been described 

 by the various foreign authors who have written on this subject. 

 Amongst the continental cabinets, that of the Garden of Plants 

 of Paris must be first mentioned, if not from its intrinsic value, 

 from the fact that most of the modern original writers on this 

 branch of natural history have used it as their type collection ; 

 witness the works of La Cepede, Latreillc; and Daudin, among 

 the French ; and Oppel, Oken, and Schweigger, among the Ger- 

 mans. It is much to be regretted that many of the specimens 

 described by these authors should not have been more particu- 

 lariy ticketed, and that the most of the species collected by the 

 later expeditions, are not yet added to the public parts of the 

 collections. I have to thank Baron Cuvier, M. F. Cuvier, and 

 M. Dumeril, for their kindness in permitting me to examine 

 these subjects, and more especially the former, whose attention 

 to me on each of my visits to Paris, has been highly flattering 

 to my feelings. Besides the National Museum at Paris, by the 

 kindness of M. Blainville, I have been enabled to examine the 

 Museum of the Ecole de Medecine, containing several curious 

 reptiles, especially some from Califoniia. 



