December 29, 1898J 



NA TURE 



19s 



'Superficial observation and stereotyped opinion. Certainly 

 ■we should have hesitated to say : 



" Of all the African tribes belonging to the West Coast, 

 the Kru boy lends himself most readily to imitation of 

 the European." 



The resistance of these tribes to alien culture being ex- 

 ceedingly marked. Be it granted the Kru man will 

 acquire all the European clothes he can while he 

 is away on his term of service ; the influence these 

 things have on him is, as Dr. Wrenchen would say, 

 "merely external," and the secret of his going ashore 

 at " we country " on his return there, got up in the 

 extraordinary costume he does, lies in his relations not 

 being able to appropriate his personal property ; his 

 general property, the things he cannot wear, are their 

 prey. The State organisation of the Kru tribes is a 

 subject of especial Interest. In all West African tribes 

 the tendency of property to become family instead of in- 

 dividual is strongly marked ; but, owing to the isolation the 

 Krus have enjoyed in their own country, it is to be found 

 in its most marked state amongst them. Mr. MacDonald 

 also repeats the customary accusation against them of 

 cowardice ; but in this connection it should be remem- 

 bered, firstly, that the Kru men met down the Coast away 

 from their homes, as labourers and canoe-men, are of the 

 class called by them Kedibo. They are the young men 

 of the communities ; they have in their own country little 

 influence, or power, until they have amassed enough 

 wealth to rise to the grade of the fighting-men, the 

 Sediho class, and when they do this they usually remain 

 at home in "we country"; and the courage of the 

 Kedihoes, even as Mr. MacDonald, indeed, states, when 

 it comes to surf work, is undoubted. Secondly, it must 

 be remembered that all African fetish worshippers are apt 

 to dislike being killed in any way far away from home ; 

 at home they do not so much object. The explanation is 

 simple. Away in an alien land their funeral rites cannot 

 be properly carried out, and therefore they stand the 

 chance not only of losing their lives, but their souls into 

 the bargain. We only mention this matter, however, in 

 order to induce so able an observer as Mr. MacDonald to 

 bring his attention to bear on the interesting subject of 

 the Kru tribes, for information regarding them is of high 

 ethnological importance. M. H. K. 



A HERPETOLOGY OF EGYPT. 



Zoology of Eoypt: Volume First, Reptitia and Batrachia. 



By John Anderson, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S. Pp. Ixv 



+ 371 : 59 pis. (London : Quaritch, 1898.) 



A A / HEN, some six years ago, Dr. Anderson undertook 



» » the investigation which has resulted in the noble 



work now published, our knowledge of the herpetological 



fauna of Egypt was very meagre indeed, and could not 



compare with that of the neighbouring countries such as 



Tunisia, Algeria, and Syria. A list of the reptiles and 



batrachians of Egypt showed an imposing array of 



species, many of which now pro\e to be merely nominal, 



but these were represented in museums by a small 



number of specimens, few of which bore indications of 



exact localities. In fact, such material as then existed 



was quite inadequate for a study of the distribution as 



NO. 1522, VOL. 59] 



required by modern zoology, and the most important 

 subject of variations and delimitation of species could 

 not be attacked. 



The author's first task was therefore the bringing to- 

 gether of a large number of specimens, from as many 

 parts of the country as possible, and this was carried out 

 by him with extraordinary energy during successive 

 visits to Egypt in the winters 1892 to 1S9;, his personal 

 investigations extending even to Suakim, beyond the 

 limits of Egypt proper. Not only did Dr. Anderson 

 himself and with the help of natives succeed in collecting 

 a very large series of specimens, many of which were 

 brought home alive and could be sketched in natural 

 colours and attitudes, but he was also fortunate enough 

 to enlist the co-operation of many residents and visitors 

 interested in natural history matters ; the result being 

 the splendid collection the bulk of which has been pre- 

 sented to the British Museum, a second, nearly complete 

 set having been reserved for the Museum of the Egyptian 

 Government School of Medicine at Cairo. 



The work comprises not merely an account of all the 

 reptiles and batrachians of Egypt proper, but also in- 

 cludes those that are known to occur on both sides of the 

 Nile as far south as Wadi Haifa, to which the species 

 met with in the district of Suakim, on the littoral of the 

 Red Sea, are added. The few species that have been 

 accorded from the Nile \'alley as far south as Khartum, 

 Kordofan, and Sennaar, are incidentally noticed. 



Egypt forms part of a zoological sub-region, extending 

 from the western confines of the Sahara to the desert 

 tracts of North-western India, combining features of the 

 two regions to which it is transitional, viz. the Pal.-earctic 

 and the /Ethiopian, with an endemic element specially 

 adapted to desert-life. One of its striking features is its 

 poverty in batrachians, the valley of the Nile from 

 Khartum to the Delta possessing only three species of 

 the tailless order, one of which has a wide distribution in 

 Europe and Asia, the two others being found over nearly 

 the whole of Africa south of the Sahara. Tailed 

 batrachians, represented in the British Museum by some 

 undetermined Salamandrine larvs stated to have been 

 collected at Ramleh, near Alexandria, have escaped Dr. 

 Anderson's diligent search in the Mediterranean littoral. 

 The reptiles are represented, within the geographical 

 limits adopted in this work, by one crocodile, two 

 chelonians, forty-two lizards, three chameleons, and 

 twenty-eight snakes, numbers not above those of pre- 

 vious estimates, the additions made by the author being 

 counterbalanced by the relegation to synonymy or the 

 degradation to varietal rank of many a form looked upon 

 by previous herpetologists as a species. 



Of the two categories of systematists suggestively if 

 inelegantly designated as "lumpers" and "splitters," 

 Dr. Anderson must unhesitatingly be classed among the 

 former. Although, we think, he occasionally goes a 

 little too far, as when he hints at the possible specific 

 identity of Chamaeleon calcarifer and Ch. calyptratus, 

 Acanthodactylus savignyi and A. pardnlis, Eckis 

 carinatus and E. coloratus, his treatment of the difticult 

 subject of species commends itself to the philosophical 

 naturalist as affording a much clearer insight into the 

 problems of distribution and variation than could be 

 obtained with the opposite system so much in vogue at 



