Sept. 5, 1878] 



NATURE 



499 



eyes and craftily creeping, is a capital picture to show a 

 troublesome child, for it has the effect of a thorough 

 scare. Phrynflsomaorbiculare,vfith its sharp neck and back 

 spines, the hideous moloch all bristling, ptychozoon with 

 its fringes and odd-looking digits, are fairly comparable, 

 in ugliness, with the chelonians, Chelys Jimbriata, platy- 

 stemon the big-headed, and the mischievous-looking 



snake-like tortoises — the hydromedusae, and the artistic 

 delineations and the descriptions are equal in merit. 



The volume commences with a general introduction 

 and then deals with the tortoises. It is interesting to find 

 our White of Selborne quoted, in illustration of the habits 

 of the common pet, and to notice that due credit is given 

 to Darwin and Giinther for their notices and elaborate 





HOKNED FkOG. 



descriptions of the gigantic land-tortoises. The flexible 

 group are introduced by a description of cmixys, and 

 then the terrapenes are described. Clemmys leads on to 

 cinosternum, whose handy-looking beak, and active (for 

 a chelonian) limbs, although small, give a very decided 

 look to the animal. The turtles are noticed, and the 



curious dermatochelys completes the group. The croco- 

 dilia come next, and as it is the least popularly known, 

 C. acutus strikes the reader at once. Its marine pro- 

 clivities in and about San Domingo have so frequently 

 been placed before the learned as indicative that the 

 geological crocodilia were not necessarily fluviatile ani- 



