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REVIEWS. 
tens), when buried in the soft mud of the Gambia, a little dust is thrown, 
it is at once blown (we were going to say sneezed) out,—an odd thing for 
a fish to do. 
To the bibliography of the Malaeopterygii abodes add a memoir by Kaup 
in Wiegmann’s “ Archives,” vol. xxii., entitled “ A Synopsis of the Fa¬ 
milies, Genera, and Species of Eels.” To make the family a natural one, 
Kaup considers it necessary to restrict it to the families Ophisuridee, 
Anguillidac, Mursenidae, Congeridae, and Synhranchidae, thus exclud¬ 
ing the Gymnotidae and Leptocephalidae, as well as Ophidium and Am- 
modytes. The genera Alabes, Saccopharynx, and Gymnarchus are also 
excluded; but as to their true systematic place the author is not yet 
decided. Several other papers by Kaup, in connexion with fishes, follow 
the one we have just alluded to, in the same volume of the “Ar¬ 
chives.” 
The genus Tetragonurus (Hisso) is placed among the Mugilidae;—a 
recent paper by Mettenheimer, in the “ Transactions of the Senchenberg 
Society of Naturalists,” vol. i., 1854, in which he goes very minutely 
into both anatomical and histological details, would favour this position. 
Although the hard scales recall the Lepidosteus and others, still there 
is nothing to warrant its being placed with the Ganoids. 
An important memoir, by Schultze, “ On the Embryology of the 
Lamprey,” appears in the “ Transactions of the Haarlem Society,” 
Part xii. 1856; and one on “Analytic Icthyology,” in the “Memoirs 
of the French Academy of Science,” Parti, for 1856, by the now veteran 
Dumeril. The first chapter in this latter memoir comprises a sketch of 
the natural history and physiology of the class; the second treats of the 
general principles of the classification, the rest of the volume being given 
to the details. 
Van der Hoeven thinks that those writers who would divide the 
Peptiles into two classes—the name Amphibia being given to the Batra- 
chians, and Beptilia being restricted to the Ophidians, Saurians, and 
Chelonians—go too far. Me think, however, with De Blainville, 
C. L. Bonaparte, Bell, and others, that such a division is imperatively 
called for, and would place the one among the Vertebrate Abranchiata, 
and the other among the Vert. Branchiata. 
There is an interesting paper by Molin on the heart and circulation 
of the Boa Constrictor, with twelve plates, in the “ Transactions of the 
Venetian Imperial Institute of Science,” vol. i. 1856. On the de¬ 
velopment of Tortoises we have the first instalment of Agassiz’s great 
work, but can give no opinion of it, having only examined the plates, 
save that its author’s name is a guarantee for something good; and 
from the plates we would judge it a valuable contribution to the em¬ 
bryology and development of the Chelonia. In the twenty-first volume 
of Wiegm aim’s “Archives,” there is a synopsis of Amphibia by Peters, 
of some merit: in it many new species are described. 
The birds are divided into six orders, i. e. Vatatores, Grallatores, 
Gallinse, Scansores, Passerini, and Raptores. 
In the introductory sketch of their development and anatomy we 
