1884. } Recent Literature. 403 
therefore, we read that snakes drink both by lapping and by suc- 
tion, we may surmise that the former is for the benefit of the tongue.” 
The incubation of Python sede is described, and the viviparity or 
oviparity of snakes generally, is clearly shown to depend simply 
upon the longer or shorter retention of the eggs within the body 
of the mother, and to vary in the same species. That some 
species afford a refuge for their young, is regarded as proved, and 
the author believes that this occurs in viviparous snakes, or in 
those in “which from some cause or other extrusion has been so 
locality I on the 
€ general reader will find the book a fascinating one, while 
the more scientific student will rise from its perusal with the con- 
pi es that, though he might have previously known a great 
eal about snake anatomy, he has learned something new about 
snakes themselves. 
Sey sr OF THE BUFFALO Society OF NATURAL SCIENCES.— 
> final number of the fourth volume of the organ of this active 
oe has just been received. It is a brochure of nearly 140 pages, 
and is devoted to an enumeration of the cryptogamic plants of 
lo and its vicinity, in continuation of the catalogue of phzn- 
Rn tla plants, by David F. Day, forming Part 11 of the same 
eet The first two numbers contain entomological, palzon- 
gical and ornithological papers of value. 
dite STANDARD Natvrav History.—Nos. 7 to 10 of this valu- 
a have reached us. In No. 8 the’account of the 
yed Crustacea, prepared by Mr. J. S. Kingsley, is finished ; 
eh, Succeeds the sessile-eyed ten the groups of Arthro- 
bites doubtful position, including the Pycnogonida, the Trilo- 
pared by - Merostomata, as well as the Pentastomida, all pre- 
it, lage Kingsley, who then offers an introduction to Class 
: the part closing with the commencement of an account 
