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REVIEWS. 

 INDIAN MUSEUM RECORDS. 



Mr. Kemp of the Indian Museum accompanied the Abor expedition as 

 Naturalist, and Vokime VIII of the ' Records ' is being devoted to the 

 Zoological results. 



So far two parts have been published containing eleven papers on 

 different groups by various specialists. 



Mr. Kemp is to be congratulated on his collections which have given 

 wonderful results considering the adverse conditions under which they 

 were made. 



In the first part Dr. Annandale deals with the SatracMa, the Reptiiia 

 and the Porifera (sponges), describing a number of new species. The paper 

 on Batrachia is divided into three parts, a systematic, a biological and a 

 geographical. In the second part he discusses the habits of tadpoles and 

 the way in which they cling to rocks, &c., to prevent themselves being 

 carried away by floods. Owing to the time of the year at vphich it was 

 made, the butterfly collection, reported on by Capt. Evans, contains little 

 of interest. Writing on the Scolopendridce Mr. F. H. Gravely describes 

 two out of the eight specimens of Centipedes collected as new. 



In part II Mr. H. C. Robinson writes on the Mammals, Mr. Malcolm 

 Burr on Devmaptera (earwigs), while various foreign specialists report on 

 the Coleoptera and Mr. Brunetti on the Diptera. 



The Mammals are distinctly disappointing, the collection consisting of 

 26 species. 



Mr. E. E. Green continues his notes on the Coccidce (scale insects) in 

 the Indian Museum in Part I of Vol. IX and Mr. E. Brunetti describes 

 some new Empidce. Part II of the same Volume is a specially valuable 

 number. There is an important contribution by Signor Silvestri on 

 some Thysanura (bristle-tails, fish-insects, etc.) in the Indian Museum, and 

 in " Notes from the Bengal Fisheries Laboratory." Mr. S. Southwell 

 writes on Trematode and Cestode parasites found in fish. The collection 

 of Tortoises in the Indian Museum is a very complete one and for some 

 time past Dr. N. Annandale has been occupied with a full revision of the 

 Indian Chelonia. In the present number he has a paper dealing with 

 Tortoises of the Chota Nagpur District. 



THE GROWTH OF GROUPS IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. * 



In his introductory chapter, Capt. R. E. Lloyd tells us that "although 

 most biologists regard natural selection as a creative agency, yet there are 

 dissenters from the accepted opinion " and in the following pages he 

 brings forward some facts in support of the dissenters. 



While studying the rats sent into the Indian Museum from all parts 

 of the country, Capt. Lloyd had exceptional opportunities of investigat- 

 ing the great variation to which the black rat Mus rattus is subject to. From 

 the material he has seen he shows that the variation in colour of the 

 ventral surface and tail — characters used to distinguish species — are to be 

 found amongst ordinary coloured districts. In Naini Tal, for instance, he 

 caught two rats in the same house, the one answering to the description of 

 Mus vicerex and the other that of M. beardmorei. Capt. Lloyd writes at 

 considerable length on the appearance in certain towns of the white- 

 bellied rats, the variety which in Plague Commission's reports is called 



* The Growth of Groups in the Animal Kingdom by R, E. Lloyd, M.B., D Se. — 

 Longmans, Green & Co., 1912, price Rs. 5. 



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