(1) Reptiles of the World: (2) A Monograph of the Frogs of the Family Microhylidae

Abstract

(1) THIS well-known book has long been recognised as a standard work on reptile life, and the several reprints which have appeared since its first publication in 1910 testify to its wide popularity and usefulness. In the preface of the revised edition, the author once more expresses the hope that the book will be “everywhere in accord with the latest results of the scientific study of the subject”. However, the new edition contains very little new information, and recent herpetological literature is not well covered. Thus, in treating of the Opisthoglyph snakes, the author speaks of “the absence of records to show what their venom is capable of doing”, though Fitzsimons (1919) has recorded the potency of Boomslang venom. Besides being dangerously poisonous to man, this is a familiar and abundant South African species which might well have been mentioned here.

(1) Reptiles of the World:

the Crocodilians, Lizards, Snakes, Turtles and Tortoises of the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. By Dr. Raymond L. Ditmars. New revised edition. Pp. xx + 321 + 90 plates. (London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, Ltd., 1933.) 18s. net.

(2) A Monograph of the Frogs of the Family Microhylidae

By H. W. Parker. Pp. viii + 208. (London: British Museum (Natural History), 1934.) 15s.