244 



NATURE 



[July i i, 1907 



Bevan, cost him no more than 2%s. The lithographic 

 landscapes, especially numerous in vol. i., add greatly 

 to the interest of this work. There are two very 

 spirited sketches by Wolf of eagles' nests in Argyll- 

 shire, drawn to illustrate the locality previously men- 

 tioned, but the majority of these landscapes depict 

 scenes in Lapland rendered more or less famous in 

 connection with Wolley's exploits. The old Lapp altar 

 near Muoniovara, the osprey's nest on the top of a 

 .Scotch fir on the Norwegian side of the watershed, 

 and the great crane marsh, all three from original 

 sketches by the editor, are examples of these land- 

 scapes. But perhaps the most interesting of all — 

 certainly the most poetic — is the picture of the hooper 

 asleep on her nest on an islet in the Patsjoki, at mid- 

 night, June 17-18, 1S55; this is based on a faint sketch 

 made by Wolley on the spot, and most skilfully inter- 

 prt-ted by Mr. Jury, .-\gain (Table O), there is a 

 truly Lapland scene, where the facile golden-eye is 

 about to deposit an egg in a tyXla, fastened to a fir- 

 tree, for the benefit of the wily native. A map of the 

 country between the Gulf of Bothnia and the Arctic 

 Ocean is added. Muoniovara occupies a fairl}' central 

 position, and the district more especially exploited is 

 comprised within the upper basins of the Muonio Elv 

 and the Ounas Joki — a stretch of about 150 miles 

 from S.E. to N.VV. There is something very musical 

 in the sound of many of the Finnish place-names. 

 Those more especially associated with the great 

 " finds " may be observed in considerable numbers in 

 the central area of the map, and collectors who possess 

 marked eggs from Lapland cannot fail to be interested 

 in the topography of the district. 



It is not easy to give anything like a synoptic view 

 of a work which appears in the form of a catalogue, 

 so that its general character can only be inferred from 

 such extracts as we have ventured to make. There 

 is abundance of oological lore, relating to a period 

 when great discoveries vtere being made, and this 

 matter has been carefully sifted by an editor whose 

 critical acumen and extensive knowledge are well 

 known. The work, therefore, cannot fail to be a 

 valuable repertory of facts, and we are bound to admit 

 that in the " Ootheca Wolleyana " the veteran ornith- 

 ologist of Cambridge, whilst adding largely to the 

 store of information originally acquired by Wolley, 

 has raised a worthy monument to the memory of his 

 long-lost friend, and we can only express our deep 

 regret that since its completion Prof. Newton has 

 likewise joined the majority. W. H. H. 



INDIAN MALACOLOGY. 

 Land and Freshwater MoUusca of India, <S^•c. By 

 Lieut.-Col. H. H. Godwin-Austen. Supplementary 

 to Messrs. Theobold and Hanley's " Conchologia 

 Indica." Vol. ii., part x. Pp. 147-238; plates 

 ci-cxvii. (London : Taylor and Francis, 1907.) 

 TT is just nineteen years since the first six parts 

 ■^ (1882-1888) of this work were noticed in these 

 pages (N.^TURE, July 5, 1888, pp. 217-218), and the 

 author is now the sole active survivor of the cele- 

 brated band of Indian malacologists that included 

 NO. 1967, VOL. 76] 



Theobald, the Nevills, Stoliczka, Benson, Beddome, 

 and the two Blan fords. One by one they have nearly 

 all gone from us (Dr. W. T. Blanford's demise is still 

 fresh in our memories), leaving, alas, no successors 

 in the field of their labours. 



This but adds to our hope that Col. Godwin-Austen 

 may long be spared to carry on the work he has 

 begun, but, so wide is the field, can never expect 

 to complete, especially since of late it has been only 

 now and then he has been able to find time for the 

 examination of material that has come to hand. As 

 a consequence, seven years have elapsed since the 

 appearance of the preceding part of the work before 

 us. 



The present number is on a line with its prede- 

 cessors, and like them shows no arrangement of sub- 

 ject, the various notes being presumably placed in 

 the order in which they were written, and conse- 

 quentlv deal alternately with the two families 

 Zonitidae and Endodontidae, to which alone the 

 materials treated belong. 



In the former family we find one new subgenus, 

 Dalingia, and two new genera, Sarika and Staffordia, 

 established ; while the author transfers Austenia, 

 Girasia, and Cryptosoma from the Helicarioninae to 

 the Macrochlamyinse, and places Leptodontaria and 

 Ibycus in the Durgellinae. He further digresses ad- 

 visedly to discuss the anatomy of three Japanese 

 species, which have been referred to Macrochlamys, 

 but vi-hich he shows must be removed, one to a new 

 subgenus, Petalochlamys, and the other two to 

 Lamproc3'stis. 



The most interesting and aberrant member of the 

 family is Stoliczka 's genus Sophina, concerning which 

 our author has much of interest to say. 



To the family Endodontidas, which is chiefly an 

 Australasian group, three Indian representatives are 

 referred, namely, Thysanota, Philalanka, and Sykesia, 

 and a new subfamily, Thysanotins, is created for 

 their reception. 



The wonderful similarity of these animals to 

 Corilla (a Ceylon genus) and Plectopylis is dwelt on, 

 but Stoliczka 's idea that the latter was related to 

 Clausilia is rejected. 



To the Thysanotinae may also possibly belong the 

 new genus Rahula, to which the Hdix macropleiiris, 

 Benson, with other species, some new, is referred. 



.Among suggestions as to topographical distribution 

 is the hint that the fauna of the Bhutan Himalayas 

 may possibly be rather related to that of western 

 China than to that of India. 



At the same time, the author is inclined to consider 

 the eastern Himalayas as the centre of dispersal of 

 the genus Macrochlamys, and points to the geo- 

 logical evidence as tending to show that from Sikkim 

 eastward up to the margin of the present plains was 

 an old land area probably coeval with that of penin-l 

 sular India, and once connected with it across what 

 is now the delta of the Ganges. The south-eastern 

 limit of the range of the genus appears to be about 

 Tenasserim. 



So far as the Gangetic valley is concerned, there 

 has been a natural transport southward by flood-waters 



i 



