Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History)

Abstract

WITH the issue of the present volume Mr. Boulenger completes his examination and description of the herpetological collections in the British Museum, which have occupied his attention for more than fourteen years. The whole series of Catalogues thus brought to a conclusion consists of nine volumes. Two of these, issued in 1882, are devoted to the Batrachians, with the study of which Mr. Boulenger commenced his labours in our National Museum, three to the Lizards (1885-87), one to the Rhynchocephalians, Chelonians, and Crocodiles (1889), and finally three to the Snakes. The enormousseries which has thus been examined, classified, and catalogued consists of 38,086 specimens. These have been referred by Mr. Boulenger to 3905 species, while 1265, others, which are allowed by the author to be valid, but are not represented in the British Museum, raise the total number of known species of Batrachians and Reptiles to 5170. While it is thus evident that our great National Institution is not without its deficiencies, there can be no doubt whatever that as regards its herpetological collections, when compared with similar institutions on the continent and elsewhere, it stands absolutely unrivalled. The collection of Reptiles and Batrachians at South Kensington is “not only the largest but also the best arranged in existence, every specimen of it having been carefully examined and classified according to a modern system after consultation of the whole literature of the subject.” Moreover, the so-called “Catalogues” are not mere lists of specimens, but, as we are assured by the Director in his preface to the last volume of the series, are “complete monographs of the groups of animals treated of, so far as their zoological characters, geographical distribution and synonymy are concerned, descriptions being given of every species regarded by the author as valid, whether represented in the Museum or not.” It is not too much to say that no more arduous or more important piece of zoological work has been brought to a successful issue, in modern days, than that which has been thus accomplished by the unremitting devotion of the author of these Catalogues to his task during the past fifteen years.

Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History).

Vol. III. Containing the Colubridæ (Opisthoglyphæ and Proteroglyphæ), Amblycephalidæ, and Viperidæ. By George Albert Boulenger. Pp. xiv + 727, 25 plates. (London: Printed by Order of the Trustees, 1896.)