The present volume is the first of the four which will deal with the reptiles and amphibians of British India. Volume II will be devoted to the lizards, Volume III to the snakes, and Volume IV to the amphibians. As stated more fully in the introduction (p. 13), the region which is covered by this work is not precisely conterminous with that of previous volumes published in this series. It has been extended to include the whole of the Indo-Chinese subregion, and is almost the same area as that included by Gunther in his ‘Reptiles of British India’, 1864. At the suggestion of the editor a general account of the structural characters and habits of the order (or sometimes family) will be found in the opening remarks to each group, so that the student may learn something of the group as a whole and of its relationship to the rest of the reptilian class. It need hardly be said that, with Mr. Boulenger’s volume on the ‘Reptilia and Batrachia’ as a basis, the preparation of this work has been greatly facilitated. At the same time it is in no sense a rechauffe of his original publication, with the necessary additions and corrections. The whole has been rewritten, even to the smallest detail.
There are no reviews yet.