138 Reviews — Itepfiks and Fis/ics in JBrifiah Museum. 



Dealiug only with extinct foi'ms (save where a few living 

 representatives have been introduced), the Keeper of the Department 

 of Geology and Palteontology, Dr. Arthur Smith Woodward, and 

 his predecessor, have devoteil their entire energies during twenty- 

 six years, since the removal from Bloomsbur}', in bringing the 

 great collections into order, and in the preparation of catalogues and 

 guidebooks, of which quite a large number have been published. 



Although the staff at the Keeper's command is but small, it has 

 been most eflScient in carrying on the general work, whilst a dozen 

 or more scientific experts, specially engaged, have taken up the task 

 of naming or arranging and cataloguing various groups to which 

 each specialist had devoted himself. This explains the very 

 excellent and ' up-to-date ' appearance of the palasontological 

 collections generally, both in the matter of arrangement and 

 labelling, to which especial attention has been paid. 



The Guide which is now before us — an entirely new edition — 

 contains an account of the Eeptiles, Amphibians, and Fishes which 

 occupy 5 Galleries ; the Eeptilia taking up oi table and wall-cases, 

 the footprints of Keptiles, etc., 3 wall-cases, the Amphibia 4 cases, 

 and the Fishes an entire Galler}', fitted up with Gl wall and 

 table-cases. Four catalogues appeared between 1S88 and 1890, by. 

 Mr. Lydekker, on the Fossil Keptilia and Amphibia, comprising 

 over 1,200 pages of descriptions and 273 woodcuts in the text; 

 but since then the collection has nearly doubled itself in extent. 



The Guide now issued is so splendidly illustrated that it brings 

 the account of this part of the Geological galleries well up to 

 date. Some idea of the excellence of the figures may be gained by 

 reference to the accompanying Plate XII, giving a view of two skulls 

 of Miolania, the remarkable horned tortoise, one species of which 

 was found in the so-called Cretaceous of Patagonia, the other in 

 the Pleistocene of Queensland, Australia. Another illustration given 

 is of Viplodocus Carnegiei (see Geol. Mag., December, 1905, 

 Plate XXV). 



Among further striking and important additions recently made to 

 the fossil Eeptiles on the eastern side of the building may be mentioned 

 the setting up of the limbs and tail of a Dinosaurian land reptile 

 (Cetiosaunts Leedsii) discovered by Mr. Alfred N. Leeds in the 

 Oxford Clay near Peterborough, of which a page-plate is given in 

 the Guide. It was a beast as large as the Diplodociis, and closely 

 allied to it. 



Another striking object is the skeleton of a huge toothless flying 

 reptile {Fleranodon occidentaUs) from the Upper Cretaceous of Kansas, 

 U.S.A. The bones, so far as obtained, are mounted on a life-size 

 picture of the complete skeleton in wall-case 2, at the east end of 

 the gallery. The total expanse of the wings is about eighteen feet. 

 The great crest on the back of the skull may have served for the 

 attachment of some of the muscles which moved these vast wings. 



The skeleton of Fariasmirus, a huge Anomodont reptile from the 

 Karoo Formation of Cape Colony, discovered by Professor H. G. 

 Seeley ; the articulated skeletons of two Plesiosaurs, reconstructed 



