234 RINGED SNAKE AT HUDDERSFIELD. 



MISS HOPLEY ON BRITISH REPTILES 

 AND BATRACHIANS. 



The Young' Collector Series.] British Reptiles and Batrachians. By 



Catherine C. Hopley, .... London : Swan, Sonnenschein, 

 Lowry & Co., Paternoster Square. 1888 [94 pages, small 8vo, cloth]. 



The number of British species of these two groups is so limited — 



especially when the turtles and the dubious species of newts included 



in our older manuals are ignored, as in the present case — that a 



volume of the ' Young Collector Series ' gives ample room for much 



to be said, and a good deal of information is given by our authoress 



of a general nature, the structure and biology of these animals being 



entered into with a fair amount of detail, while numerous references 



to their habits in confinement betray her liking for pets of this kind. 



Beyond this, however, Miss Hopley does not go, and the book is by 



no means either a descriptive manual or a work upon natural history 



(in the Gilbert White sense) or upon the geographical range of the 



animals upon which it treats. The book is of considerable interest, 



and is fairly well illustrated by wood-engravings. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



At the annual meeting of the Leeds Geological Association in June last, the 

 secretary's report showed that the association continues to advance in a most 

 gratifying manner. The roll, which stood in 1884 at 30, and at 109 in 1888, now 

 registers 130 members. There have been eight evening meetings and ten field 

 excursions, at which the attendance has been highly encouraging. The Fourth 

 Part of the 'Transactions' has again from its contents received approbation, and 

 has included a frontispiece in the shape of a portrait of the president. The asso- 

 ciation has since the last annual meeting been admitted as a corresponding society of 

 the British Association. The following gentlemen — Messrs. J. E. Bedford, F.G.S., 

 B. Holgate, F.G.S., and Wm. Cheetham — have been appointed, on behalf of the 

 association, to serve on the local committee for making arrangements for the visit 

 to Leeds in 1890 of the British Association. The Secretary represented the 

 association upon the General Committee of the British Association at the Bath 

 meeting. By the kindness of the directors of the Leeds Mechanics' Institution, a 

 new and more suitable room in every respect has been allotted to the association 

 for its meetings, which is admirably adapted to its requirements. The election of 

 the executive for the session 1889-90 took place, with the following result: — 

 President, J. E. Bedford, F.G.S. (re-elected) ; vice-presidents, T. W. Bell, 

 W. Cheetham, C. D. Hardcastle, B. Holgate, F.G.S. (all re-elected); treasurer, 

 W. H. Gill (re-elected); librarian, C. Brownridge, F.G.S. (re-elected); assistant 

 secretary, A. E. Nichols ; council, C. Brownridge, F.G.S., John Ingleby, 

 E. Hawksworth, W. J. P. Harris, and W. L. Carter, M.A., F.G.S. ; and secre- 

 tary, S. A. Adamson, F.G.S. (sixth time of election). 



NO TE— REPTILES. 

 The Common Ringed Snake at Huddersfield. — Last evening Mrs. Learoyd 

 of Edgerton, Huddersfield, brought in for me to see a specimen of the Common 

 Ringed Snake ( Tropidonotus natrix), which her gardener had killed in the garden. 

 The specimen measured 28 inches, and it was thought had probably come from a 

 small wood opposite the house, though it had been seen in the garden some time 

 before it was killed. It is probably considerably over twenty years since a 

 specimen was seen wild in this district before. — Geo. T. Porritt, Huddersfield, 

 24th July, 1889. 



Naturalist, 



