Abstract
WHEN we consider how very small is the number of zoologists who take an interest in, or make a special study of, the animals of the class Reptilia, and how little attraction this branch of zoology appears likely to have for the public, we cannot but feel surprised when, now and then, one bolder than his fellow-labourers prepares a comprehensive account of some portion of these animals, and ventures to put it forth in the shape of a goodly volume, which must have cost the author a vast amount of unappreciated labour, and the publisher a round sum of money without a prospect of its speedy return. Thus, on examining the work which has just been published under the above title by the Curator of the Sydney Museum, we find that the investigations on which it is based have been carried out by fourteen zoologists only, of whom not more than one half belong to the present generation, whilst the other half have only described a species or two incidentally.
The Snakes of Australia: an Illustrated and Descriptive Catalogue of all the known Species.
By Gerard Krefft, &c., &c., Curator and Secretary of the Australian Museum. Large 8vo. pp. 100, with 12 lithographic plates. (Sydney, 1869. London: Trübner and Co.)
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GUNTHER, A. The Snakes of Australia: an Illustrated and Descriptive Catalogue of all the known Species. Nature 2, 64 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/002064a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/002064a0