Zoological Progress in 1903 187 
Passing on to the second great group of vertebrates, the first work for notice is 
Mr. H. EH. Dresser’s two volumes entitled a “Manual of Palearctic Birds,’ which form 
an important contribution to ornithology. 
During the year there has also been issued the fourth volume of Dr. R. Bowdler 
Sharpe’s invaluable “Hand-List of Birds in the British Museum.” This work, which 
is to be completed in five volumes, gives the scientific name of every known species 
of bird, recent and extinct, with references to descriptions and figures. Another work 
of some importance in course of issue by the British Museum is the “Catalogue of 
Birds’ Eggs,” of which the third volume has appeared this year. This volume is the 
jomt work of Mr. E. W. Oates and Captain Savile Reid. A great feature is formed 
by the exquisite coloured figures of eggs. Another illustrated ornithological work to 
which reference may be made is Dr. E. Goeldi’s “Birds of Amazonia” (Aves do 
Amazonica-stromme), published at Para, Brazil, of which the second part has appeared 
during the year. 
Among works on the anatomy of birds, special mention must be made of Mr. 
W. P. Pyevaft’s memoir on the “Osteology of the Owls,’ published in the “Transactions” 
of the Linnean Society. 
Considerable interest attaches to Monsieur Grandidier’s description (in the “ Bulletin” 
of the Paris Museum of Natural History) of a new generic type of vail-like bird 
from Madagascar, which it is proposed to call Monias benschi. The beak is long and 
curved, and the general colour of the plumage of the back brown. 
With regard to reptiles, certain important experiments have recently been made in 
Calcutta by Dr. Li. Rogers on the effects of the venom of sea-snakes (Hydrophiine), 
of which an account has been published in the “ Proceedings” of the Royal Society. 
The poison has much the same effects as that of the cobra, but is more fatal to fishes. 
In the “Proceedings” of the Zoological Society Mr. G. A. Boulenger describes the 
female of a rare frog (Ceratohyla bubalus) from the Peruvian Andes, to the skin of 
the back of which nine eggs (each containing a young frog) were tightly adherent. 
The publication of the volume of the ‘‘Cambridge Natural History” devoted to 
fishes and the lower chordate vertebrates will enable the amateur to obtain an excellent 
idea of the leading types of fish-life without the labour of consulting volumes like the 
British Museum “Catalogue”; Mr. G. A. Boulenger’s name on the title-page beimg a 
sufficient guarantee of the accuracy of the work. Mention may also be made of an 
article by Mr. F. Tullberg, published in Vol. VIII. of the “Bihang” of the Swedish 
Academy, on the function of the so-called labyrinth of the internal ear of fishes, which 
is believed to receive impressions of the movements of the water, although it may 
also act as an organ of hearing. Reference in this place may be made to the issue 
during the year of several parts of the valuable account of Japanese fishes by Messrs. 
' Jordan & Fowler, now in course of publication in the “Bulletin” of the U.S. National 
Museum. As the result of the Hopkins-Stanford expedition to the Galapagos Islands, 
no less than twenty-three new species of fishes (five of them representing new genera) 
have been obtained. They are described by Messrs. Heller and Snodgrass in the 
“Proceedings” of the Washington Academy of Sciences. An article in the “ Decennial 
Publications” of the University of Chicago, by Mr. A. C. Hyeleshymer, on the early 
development of the bony pike forms an important contribution to embryology. 
As regards molluscs, two discoveries are deserving of special mention. ‘The first is 
that of a new species of Plewrotomaria in Japanese waters, making the fifth living 
specific representative of the genus. Pleurotomarias are large and handsomely-coloured 
trochus-like shells, with the characteristic slit in the edge of the mouth. For a long 
time they were known only in the fossil state, and are exceedingly common in the 
Oolitic and Cretaceous rocks; but living specimens have of late years been from time 
