July 23, 1896J 



NA rURE 



267 



system after consultation of the whole literature of the 

 subject." Moreover, the so-called "Catalogues" are not 

 mere lists of specimens, but, as we are assured by the 

 Director in his preface to the last volume of the scries, 

 are " complete monographs of the groups of animals 

 treated of, so far as their zoological characters, geo- 

 graphical distribution and synonymy are concerned, de- 

 scriptions being given of every species regarded by the 

 author as valid, whether represented in the Museum or 

 not." It is not too much to say that no more arduous or 

 more important piece of zoological work has Ijeen brought 

 to a successful issue, in modern days, than that which has 

 been thus accomplished by the unremitting devotion of 

 the author of these Catalogues to his task during the 

 past fifteen years. 



With regard to the Ophidians or Snakes, which are 

 more immediately the subject of the present notice, Mr. 

 Boulenger has had a specially difficult subject to deal 

 with. Ne.xt to the Lizards the Snakes are the most 

 numerous Order of Reptiles. But while the Lizards 

 present many well-marked characters for their division 

 into subordinate sections, the great mass of Snakes belong 

 essentially to one extensive group which Mr. Boulenger 

 allows only to rank as a family. Out of the whole 

 number of 1639 species of Snakes recognised as valid in 

 the present work, upwards of 1250 species are referred to 

 the Colubridiu. The proper treatment of this family 

 is one of the most embarrassing questions for the Her- 

 petologist. The formerly recognised division of Snakes 

 into Venomous and Non-venomous is altogether discarded 

 by the author, who takes the structure of the skull and 

 other anatomical characters as his guide. The great 

 family Colubridie embraces venomous as well as innocuous 

 species ; indeed, the poison of some of the Protero- 

 glyphous Colubrines (such as the Cobras and Hydrophids) 

 is quite as deadly as that of the Vipers and Rattlesnakes. 

 In another w-ork, recently published, Mr. Boulenger has 

 spoken as follows upon this subject :— 



"A general desire is felt by those not well acquainted 

 with Snakes to be able to distinguish at a glance between 

 harmless and poisonous forms. To meet this require- 

 ment various criteria have been proposed, none of which, 

 liowever, are satisfactory. It is well to state at once that 

 there is no sure method of distinguishing the two forms 

 by external characters, except of course a knowledge of 

 the various fomis. And even then a cursory examination 

 is not always sufficient, since there is, in some cases, a 

 striking resemblance between Snakes of totally different 

 affinities, by which even specialists may be at first 

 deceived. In short, nothing but an examination of the 

 <lentition can afford positive information as to the 

 poisonous or non-poisonous nature of an unknown 

 Snake." 



Mr. Boulenger divides the Ophidians as a whole into 

 nine families. He commences his systematic arrange- 

 ment with the small worm-like Typhlopidie, which pass 

 their lives in burrows beneath the earth. They are 

 numerous under the tropics, upwards of 100 species being 

 already known, and many more in all probability awaiting 

 discovery. The allied family Glauconiidx, of which twenty- 

 nine species are registered, has similar habits. Next to 

 these come the Boas and Pythons (Boid.e) v/ith sixty-six 

 species, amongst which are the monsters of the Ophidian 

 Order. Python reticulatus, of the Malay countries, is 

 NO. 1395, VOL. 54] 



said to attain a length of thirty feet, and the Anaconda of 

 tropical forests of South America to arrive at still larger 

 dimensions. Of the small family Ilysiidre, which is inter- 

 mediate between the Boas and the Earth-snakes (Uro- 

 peltidw) only five species, belonging to three genera, are 

 known, two of these being East Indian, while one, strange 

 to say, is South American. The Uropeltida;, on the other 

 hand, offer us an example of an extremely limited distri- 

 bution, the whole of the forty-two known species being 

 restricted to the mountains of Ceylon and the Indian 

 peninsula, where they are frequently dug up in the 

 plantations of Tea and Coffee. The sixth family of 

 Snakes, according to Mr. Boulenger's system, consists 

 only of the anomalous Xenopeltis unicolor, of India and 

 the Malayan countries, while the seventh family, the 

 Colubridit, as we have already mentioned, is by far the 

 most numerous of all, containing, in fact, more than 

 three-fourths of all the known species of Ophidians. Mr. 

 Boulenger divides this enormous "family" into "three 

 parallel series " — Aglypha, Opisthoglypha, and Protero- 

 glypha. The first of these, with solid teeth, are harm- 

 less ; the last, with the anterior maxillary teeth grooved 

 or perforated, are venomous ; while the Opisthoglyphs, 

 with the posterior maxillary teeth grooved, are all to be 

 suspected, and usually more or less poisonous. The 

 highly venomous Proteroglyphs are followed, although 

 they do not lead into the typical venomous Serpents 

 with erectile maxillary, which Mr. Boulenger unites into 

 one family — Viperida? — classing the Pit-vipers and Rattle- 

 snakes only as a distinct sub-family. This is his ninth 

 and last group of Ophidians. Between it and the Colu- 

 bridK, he locates as an eighth family the Amblycephalid;e, 

 the members of which have but little power of expanding 

 the mouth, and feed on insects and other small prey. Of 

 Amblycephalida?, thirty-four species are characterised 

 and referred to five genera. 



Whatever objections may hereafter be taken, and in 

 some cases perhaps maintained, against Mr. Boulenger's 

 rather revolutionary scheme of the classification of 

 Snakes, there can be no question that his " Catalogue " 

 makes a most distinct and remarkable advance in our 

 knowledge of these animals, and will in future be em- 

 ployed by herpetologists all over the world for the arrange- 

 ment of their collections, and as a solid base for future 

 research. In the case of the " Catalogue of Birds," now 

 nearly brought to a completion in the same zoological 

 workshop, it has been found necessary to employ many 

 different authors whose discordant views result in a 

 somewhat incongruous whole. But herpetology has been 

 more fortunate than ornithology in finding a naturalist 

 of conspicuous ability and untiring patience who has 

 achieved the feat of arranging and classifying all the 

 subjects under his charge upon a uniform system. 



THE MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS IN 

 THE UNITED STATES. 



The United States Public Works Guide and Register. 

 By Captain W. M. Black. Pp. vi -f 276. (New York : 

 Wiley and Sons. London : Chapman and Hall, 1895.) 



THE public w-orks of the United States are in charge 

 of officers working under different bureaus of the 

 executive departments of the Government. .Ml harbour, 



