Abstract
NOT long ago we called the attention of our readers to the herpetological discoveries of a German naturalist and traveller in New Guinea and the adjoining islands. We are now indebted to the Marchese G. Doria, of Genoa, for an account of the investigations of an Italian explorer, Dr. O. Beccari, in the same countries, although not quite in the same localities. The memoir before us treats of a collection of Reptiles and Batrachians made by Dr. Beccari in Amboyna, the Aru Islands, and the Ké Islands, in 1872 and 1873, which contained altogether 670 examples referable to fifty-three species. As regards Amboyna, not much novelty could be expected, this island having been thoroughly explored years ago by the Dutch naturalists. But the two other groups of Papuan islands to which Dr. Beccari devoted his attention were almost terrœ incognitœ as regards herpetology; Mr. Wallace, their previous explorer, having devoted himself mainly to birds and insects. Here, therefore, Dr. Beccari's collections prove to have contained much interesting material, of which our author gives us an excellent account, illustrated by some carefully executed plates.
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Dr. Beccari's Discoveries in Herpetology * . Nature 11, 447 (1875). https://doi.org/10.1038/011447a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/011447a0