"^'iSi!^,i:t" ^MMm in the Uni.

66 REPT1LIA.
(Gray, = Scincus telfairii, Desj.), and that remarkable Snake, Casarea
dussumieri (D. &B.).
India. The Recorder has particular pleasure in referring to
several publications on Indian Herpetology which appeared m
the course of last year. Zoologists resident m the country have
begun to pay attention to this branch; and although the determination
of the species appears to be still attended with difficulty,
owing to the want of a good central collection of wellauthenticated
specimens, the accounts and descriptions have
become much more precise and trustworthy. Of course many
additions to the synonymy continue to be made; but this disadvantage
is fully counterbalanced by the supplementary information
we receive with regard to species previously known.
1. E. NICOLSON : ' Indian Snakes : an elementary treatise on
Ophiology, with a descriptive Catalogue of the Snakes found in
India and the adjoining countries/ Madras, 1870, 8vo, pp. 118.
This little book is useful for the purpose for which it is published,
namely, to furnish residents in India with an introduction to the
study of Snakes.
2. The Reptiles in the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal
have been examined by Mr. W THEOBALD ; and a catalogue of
them is published as an extra number of the Journal of the
Asiatic Society' for 1868 (it reached England in 1870). Some
twenty species are described as new; but the majority of those of
them which since have been critically examined by others have
proved to be known and even common species. This catalogue
is not without inaccuracies, but ought to be consulted by all
those who require information on species imperfectly described
by Blyth. Unfortunately not a few of the typical specimens
appear to have been lost.
3: Capt. BEDDOME continues, as we hear, his herpetological
studies; but no publication of his appears to have reached this
country.
4. Mr. T. C. JERDON has published "Notes on Indian Herpetology"
in Proc. As. Soc. Beng. 1870, pp. 66-85. These notes
are preliminary to a general work on Indian Reptiles which the
author is preparing for the press ; and as he intends to compare
for this object his specimens with those in the British Museum,
we refer in the special part of this Record only to certain more
important results of his observations.
5. Dr. F. STOLICZKA'S "Observations on some Indian and Malayan
Amphibia and Reptilia/' in Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 1870,
pp. 134-228, pis. 9-12, and Proc. As. Soc. Beng. 1870, pp. 272-
275, are evidently the result of careful study. He gives a list of
29 species from the Andaman and of as many from the Nicobar
Islands. Eighty-four other Reptiles and Amphibians from
various localities are noticed and described in this paper.
6. Finally, Mr. W. T. BLANFORD gives "Notes on some Reptilia