Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/218

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194
THE ZOOLOGIST

rather than profound, and perhaps that is a merit when we consider the hands into which it is likely to fall. Of faulty treatment, we may instance the section devoted to the Crocodilia as an example. We have no distribution of the Crocodiles described, and as the only species referred to is C. niloticus, a youthful enquirer might consider that the Crocodiles were confined to Africa. Moreover, the Garial and the Alligator are given as "Allied Species," when it would clearly have been more exact to write allied genera. But the book still fulfils a purpose of its own, and we know of no other that will make a child think more of the animals described; while, if the teacher is really capable of his or her implied function, some healthy commentation may be made, and some likely misconceptions be avoided.


The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Edited by W.T. Blanford. Arachnida, by R.I. Pocock.Taylor & Francis.

Since the publication a few years previously of Thorell's 'Spiders of Burma,' this is the most important work on the Eastern Arachnida that has appeared, and it altogether supplements Thorell's 'Monograph' by treating the Arachnida as a whole, including the Scorpiones (Scorpions), the Uropygi, and the interesting Solifugæ. Altogether three hundred and forty-three species are fully described—the Araneæ, probably owing to the exigencies of space, having a shorter diagnosis than the preceding orders—and the families and genera clearly characterized. The illustrations are not so numerous as in some other volumes of the series, but those given are apt, and of a structural description. The volume is a distinct addition to our knowledge of Indian zoology, and forms a worthy contribution to an excellent and much needed faunistic monograph relating to the Oriental Region.