500 



NATURE 



{Sept. 5, 1878 



mals, that its habits, recorded by Humboldt, are very 

 interesting. The sauria are commenced by a notice of 

 hatteria, and it is to be hoped that by the next edition 

 some one will have learned something of the habits of 

 this extraordinary lacertilian with its dentate crest and 

 back, palatine teeth, biconcave vertebrae, uncinate pro- 

 cesses to the ribs and peculiar system of abdominal 

 ribs — the living link with the oldest saurians. The 

 Varanidae and lizards are profusely illustrated, and 

 (jiinther's work on pseudopus, more serpent-like, than 

 Sincus in appearance, is noticed before this last 

 genus. Trachysaurus, seps, and the Australian pygopus, 

 might seem reasonably, from outside appearance, to lead 

 to or to be parallel with Chirotes, with its small an- 

 terior extremities, and amphisbaena, and to merge into 

 the ophidia. But Brehm has placed between the groups 

 the highly interesting histiurus, chlamydosaurus with its 

 ruff, uromastix, moloch the strange, basiliscus so heraldic 

 in its contour, and the sea-lizard amblyrhynchus. There is 

 a most comical drawing of two platydactyH meeting on a 

 wall, one of them, the intruding party, clinging on to the 

 steep face of a stone by its extended digits. These 

 Gecko species conclude the part. 



The ophidia have a very long and interesting intro- 

 duction, which is more valuable in a natural history sense 

 than in any other; the habits and archaeology are 

 capitally given, and some of the popular errors about 

 snakes are exploded, commencing with the non-poisonous 

 set, boa-constrictor and anaconda are given, the latter 

 being rendered espe:ially interesting by quotations from 

 Bates, Humboldt, and Prince von Wied. Xiphosoma, a 

 species of which, figured by Wolf in his usual style under 

 Sclater's auspices, is familiar to us in England, has a 

 spirited engraving by Miitzel. It is disturbing the domes- 

 tic felicity of a cock and hen, and chanticleer is grasped 

 by the shoulder in the fangs of its enemy, whilst the hen 

 is rushing off in dire alarm. The interesting long and 

 slender snake from the Antilles is described with Brehm' s 

 usual care, and is drawn in its common position coiled 

 up on a mass of sugar-cane leaves. Then passing on to 

 the pythons, the author commences with a learned para- 

 graph, in which quotations and opinions as to their size 

 and gourmandising propensities are given from Megas- 

 thenes and Metrodus, whose vigorous imaginations were 

 outdone by the boa seen by Regulus of one hundred and 

 twenty feet in length. The snake which, in the time of 

 Claudius, was found with a whole child in its stomach, 

 comes nearer the truth. The Indian python {P. molurus) 

 is shown strangling, in the folds of the first half of its body, 

 a small ruminant, the hinder half being still on the ground 

 to give ^ point d'appuL The hind-quarters of the prey 

 are being grasped by the jaws preparatory to swallowing. 

 A little further on Python sebcB is swallowing a bird : 

 the gape is stretched to the utmost and the muscular ten- 

 sion of the neck is admirably given. There is a long and 

 interesting history of the water snake {Tropidonotus 

 natrix) with notices of its hybernation and habits, and 

 the tree-snakes, well illustrated, lead to the water-loving 

 and ugly Japanese achrocordus. The natural history of 

 the poisonous snakes is carefully given, and the researches 

 on the nature of the poison are carried down to the date 

 of Brunt on's and Fayrer's work. A large plate of the cobra 

 charming is given. There is a wonderful drawing of 

 Hydrophis cyanocincta, with its compressed body, and of 

 the flat-headed, long-snouted sea-snake {Pelainis btcolor). 

 There is much interesting information given about the 

 vipers and the rattle-snakes, headed by a drawing of that 

 curious happy family, the prairie-dog, owl, and snake, and 

 the group ends with the genus Bothrops. In dealing with 

 the amphibia, Giinther is very generally followed, the 

 liylidae are elaborately illustrated, and Nototrema marsu- 

 piaium especially. The Antilles frog {Hylodes martini- 

 censis), whose metamorphoses are shortened in the &gg in 

 which they have a very short tail, which is lost during the 



first day of liberty, is described, and then, passing on to 

 the Ranidae, the esculent form is noticed and figured. A 

 pre-Raphaelite horned frog from the south of the Brazils, 

 the obstetric alytes and the pipae are admirably drawn and 

 described. There is nothing very striking amongst the 

 urodela, and the gymnophiona are curtly treated. There 

 is no doubt that this volume will be studied by all who can 

 read easy German, and we commend it to schoolmasters 

 who usually teach the language out of the dreariest books. 



The third volume of the mammalia, by Dr. A. E. Brehm, 

 includes the horses, the ruminants, proboscidea ; tapirs, 

 rhinoscerides, hyracoidea, pigs, hippopotamidae, and the 

 marine series, and they are contained in nearly 700 large 

 pages. The natural history of these groups is so pro- 

 fusely embellished with illustrations, and so replete with 

 anecdotes relating to the habits, instincts, and methods 

 of capture of the principal types, that it is a true popular 

 encyclopaedia of this part of nature. There might be 

 more anatomy and physiology, but, as a book for com- 

 mon reading in all parts of the world, it is most excel- 

 lent, and well up to the zoology of the day. It is refresh- 

 ing to be reminded of the old school of zoologists, now 

 almost extinct in this country, whose members, if they 

 did not know all the anatomical minutiae, the homologies, 

 morphological affinities, and the terribly hard names of, 

 and devoted to, the animal kingdom by modern savans, 

 did know the outside appearance, and could tell interest- 

 ing tales about the beasts of the field. It is true that 

 they had not reached that standpoint where it is neces- 

 sary to get at the base of the skull of a ruminant before 

 its genus can be told, or to examine the knee, carotid, 

 or some other post-mortetn matter of a bird before it 

 can be classified. But they could distinguish between 

 living things by their outsides, and had a good idea 

 of the notion of a genus and species frojn external 

 characters. The horse, of course, affords great scope 

 for Brehm's literary powers, and the archaeology and the 

 divisions of the group are well and carefully done. As 

 everybody is the best possible judge of a horse, those 

 who read this part will surely criticise the illustrations. 

 They will please those observers who know the motions 

 of a horse from plates, but they will not pass muster with 

 horse-loving people. There is a cut of Equus hemionus, 

 and, evidently from the position of the most prominent of 

 the group, it is about to lie down at full gallop Next comes 

 a large plate of an Arab of pure blood, a stallion without a 

 single good point about it : its ears are close together, it has 

 small nostrils, and a jowl like a cart-horse; straight shoul- 

 ders, small, long, upper fore- legs, and a great narrowing of 

 the hock below the knee ; it has a long barrel, no end of 

 space between the rib and pelvis, and the off hind-leg is 

 that of a rocking-horse. An Arab is admiring this beast, 

 and an erect Black is probably discounting its value to that 

 of twenty-fire pounds. The tail is the best part. On p. 29 

 a mare and foal are trotting, and the mare is pointing her 

 descending fore-foot after the manner of screws ; artists 

 rarely will see that the sound horse tries to get the back 

 of its foot down in the trot, and then never falls. A cut of 

 a quagga shows that this African animal does not require 

 to touch the ground in its motion — motion we say, for 

 whether the beast is trotting, cantering, or larking, it is 

 impossible to say, for the near legs are wide apart, one 

 under the nose and the other under the tail, whilst the 

 off legs are within a foot of each other, and all are in 

 the air. Burchell's horse is, however, properly drawn. 



The ruminants will be more interesting to those readers 

 who have not had the advantage of visiting large zoolo- 

 logical gardens or of reading the stories of the great 

 African hunters ; but there are several types which are 

 uncommon, and which are of much interest. There is 

 nothing particularly new in the other groups, and the 

 works of Murie, Brown, and others, have been carefully 

 abstracted in dealing with the pinnipedia. 



P. M. D. 



