A. C. L. G. Gunther. 



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in the Catalogue of the JRoyal Society the reader is struck by the variety 

 as well as by the laborious nature of most of them. Few men have pro- 

 duced such a series of meritorious contributions to our knowledge of 

 zoology, ranging from Distomes and Spiders to Mammalia, but chiefly con- 

 centrated on Fishes, Amphibians, and Eeptiles, though Birds and Mammals 

 come in for a considerable share ; and yet this list is incomplete — without 

 for the moment alluding to his separate works. Some of his earlier papers 

 appeared in the 1 Wiirttemberg Jahreshefte ' and in 1 Wiegmann's Archiv,' but 

 after he was settled in the British Museum the majority of his valuable 

 contributions were published in the ' Proceedings ' and ' Transactions ' of the 

 Zoological Society, those of the Boyal Society, and in the ' Annals of Natural 

 History ' — of which he was so long the chief editor. His lucid and terse 

 descriptions of new. fishes, frogs, snakes, lizards, tortoises, of birds and 

 mammals, his anatomical memoirs on Hatteria (Sphenodori) and Ceratodus, his 

 descriptions of zoological gardens at home and abroad, his papers on the dis- 

 tribution of reptiles, on zoological nomenclature, and on fossil fishes were 

 sufficient for the foundation of several reputations. Every collection of note 

 made by explorers all over the world came to him at least for the fishes, frogs, 

 and reptiles, and occasionally for the birds and mammals. Special memoirs 

 on certain groups were intermingled with faunistic reports and descriptions of 

 new forms in the British Museum, ranging from an undescribed spider from 

 Cochin China, a new species of long-tailed titmouse, the insectivorous mammal 

 Potamogale, to a new poison-organ in batrachoid fishes, and the skeleton of 

 Ausonia. Further, as the founder and first editor of the ' Zoological Becord ' 

 in 1865, he placed naturalists under a debt of gratitude which continues now 

 with unabated force, since the modern developments in this field are largely 

 due to his original efforts. His object, " to acquaint zoologists with the 

 progress of every branch of their science in all parts of the globe, and to 

 form a repertory which will retain its value for the student of future years," 

 has been amply borne out. 



His incisive criticism (1859) of the work of a Continental author on the 

 snakes is incorporated, again, in his description of a new genus of West 

 African snakes (Elapops), and revision of the South American Elaps ; whilst 

 his researches make a distinct advance on our knowledge. His historical 

 account of Echeneis (1860) reveals not only the classical knowledge of the 

 author, but an intimate acquaintance with the extensive literature and of 

 the rich collections in the British Museum, so that he was enabled not 

 only to correct previous errors, but to add two new species to the genus. 



Most instructive was his paper (1859) on the sexual differences in recent 

 and fossil frogs and fishes, and especially of Ceratophrys, the female having 

 a skull about three times as large as that of the male. Its peculiar and solid 

 structure in both sexes is due to the mode of life of these frogs, which feed 

 on other frogs, birds, mice, and young rats ; thus Dr. Gunther found in the 

 stomach of one a CystognatJms half the size of its destroyer, for, with its 

 wide cleft and enormous cavity of the mouth, its powerful muscles from the 



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