NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 479 



and the second are not commonly encountered, though far from 

 scarce in proper localities. We speak of our own experience, 

 having resided in two good Python haunts — the Straits of Malacca 

 and the warm eastern regions of South Africa ; and though Malays 

 frequently brought us these reptiles in the first locality, having also 

 inspected an ample local supply in a dealer's shop in Durban, and 

 purchased a fine specimen from a Transvaal " transport rider," we 

 still never met with a specimen under natural conditions during 

 many forest rambles in both countries. 



Very much is to be learned in the successful prevention of 

 voluntary starvation by reptiles in captivity. Our own experience 

 with Snakes, Monitors and other Lizards is a tragic one ; no con- 

 tumacious prisoners ever refused food with equal persistency. 

 Dr. Bateman fully describes the method of necessary artificial 

 feeding, but to seize an 18 -ft. Python and force food down its throat 

 is at least a somewhat heroic undertaking, for though a Python 

 is non-poisonous, it can still bite (we have seen the effects of its 

 teeth) and knows how to dispose of its body. We should have 

 been very glad to have possessed the book when sojourning among 

 a rich reptilian population, for it is full of good hints, practical 

 advice, and information as to constructing Vivaria. The illustra- 

 tions are very satisfactory, and the long descriptive enumeration of 

 Reptiles and Amphibians — for which the writings of Dr. Gunther 

 and Mr. Boulenger have been consulted — which may be kept, 

 really constitutes a zoological handbook in which many natural 

 history observations are compiled. No doubt a specialist would 

 find it necessary to make some comments, but books must be 

 judged by the purpose for which they are written, and accuracy 

 in every detail can only be expected and made imperative in the 

 actual thesis of the author. Though we cannot all afford to find 

 the necessary accommodation for Crocodiles and Pythons, Tor- 

 toises and Terrapins, Bull Frogs and Salamanders, in comparison 

 to which Orchid-growing would be an economy, there are still 

 very many interesting, small and easily procured reptiles whose 

 housing and observation could not fail to contribute — as they have 

 already done in the past — many of the fresh facts which slowly 

 aggregate to a future knowledge of the real Natural History of 

 Animal Life. 



