Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/507

Rh and the second are not commonly encountered, though far from scarce in proper localities. We speak of our own experience, having resided in two good Python haunts—the Straits of Malacca and the warm eastern regions of South Africa; and though Malays frequently brought us these reptiles in the first locality, having also inspected an ample local supply in a dealer's shop in Durban, and purchased a fine specimen from a Transvaal "transport rider," we still never met with a specimen under natural conditions during many forest rambles in both countries.

Very much is to be learned in the successful prevention of voluntary starvation by reptiles in captivity. Our own experience with Snakes, Monitors and other Lizards is a tragic one; no contumacious prisoners ever refused food with equal persistency. Dr. Bateman fully describes the method of necessary artificial feeding, but to seize an 18-ft. Python and force food down its throat is at least a somewhat heroic undertaking, for though a Python is non-poisonous, it can still bite (we have seen the effects of its teeth) and knows how to dispose of its body. We should have been very glad to have possessed the book when sojourning among a rich reptilian population, for it is full of good hints, practical advice, and information as to constructing Vivaria. The illustrations are very satisfactory, and the long descriptive enumeration of Reptiles and Amphibians—for which the writings of Dr. Günther and Mr. Boulenger have been consulted—which may be kept, really constitutes a zoological handbook in which many natural history observations are compiled. No doubt a specialist would find it necessary to make some comments, but books must be judged by the purpose for which they are written, and accuracy in every detail can only be expected and made imperative in the actual thesis of the author. Though we cannot all afford to find the necessary accommodation for Crocodiles and Pythons, Tortoises and Terrapins, Bull Frogs and Salamanders, in comparison to which Orchid-growing would be an economy, there are still very many interesting, small and easily procured reptiles whose housing and observation could not fail to contribute—as they have already done in the past—many of the fresh facts which slowly aggregate to a future knowledge of the real Natural History of Animal Life.