On Malayan Shores: A Review 
375 
applicable within the scope of the work, the 
second is a systematic review. The first section 
includes chapters on the chemistry of sea water, 
zonation of the shore, coral reefs, plankton, etc. 
There is also a chapter valuable for a trained 
biologist visiting the peninsula which discusses 
Malayan collecting localities ( Chapter VI ) . The 
second portion is divided among seven phyla, 
although eight or nine additional phyla are dis- 
cussed, with species named, in the chapter on 
animal life of Part I. The appendix gives faunal 
lists for four typical shore habitats. A glossary 
gives Malayan names for over 100 species. The 
bibliography is short and covers only those 
books cited in the text, not the systematic works 
from which the nomenclature was derived. The 
index is very complete, listing all systematic 
names applied to all taxa, English common 
names, topics discussed in the first part of the 
book, and authors cited; it even includes a 
glossary to some of the more technical terms 
used, as "siphonoglyph” and "periostracum.” 
While this book is addressed only to the 
amateur, it obviously will be used by two other 
groups: students of biology in Malaya, and ma- 
rine biologists visting these waters for the first 
time. Having spent a year working on the ad- 
jacent Gulf of Thailand, and having briefly vis- 
ited Malayan shores, I can attest how extremely 
valuable this volume will be to visitors. More- 
over, because the fauna from India to Indonesia, 
from the Coral Sea to the South China Sea is 
basically the same, it will be of use to all visitors 
to the Western Pacific and adjacent Indian 
Ocean. 
Admittedly the book has limitations: it is 
not an exhaustive scientific monograph on the 
flora and fauna. Yet if it were, it would not be 
one small volume, but many large volumes. 
Rather than disparage the book for omissions, 
we should commend the author for producing a 
volume of considerable value to biologists, and 
regret that books such as this are not available 
for other areas in the tropical Pacific. — A. H. 
Banner, Department of Zoology, University of 
Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii. 
