The two latest additions to the SSAR reprints series are largely taxonomic works from expeditions in the first quarter of this century. The Contributions contains a collection of three long papers from the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 1919-24; two on reptiles by Karl Schmidt and one on amphibians by G. Kingsley Noble. These form the herpetological results of the AMNH Congo expedition of 1909-1915. The Gigantic Land Tortoises was originally published in the Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences in 1914, and is based on the CAS Galapagos expedition of 1905-6. The two works have many similarities, not least that none of the authors participated in the expeditions or saw the animals in the field. The interest of the two books, and their present utility, are however rather different.

The AMNH Congo expedition was a massive enterprise lasting six years. It covered about 15,000 miles on foot (the only alternative at the time was water transport in native canoes, which would have damaged specimens), involving a total of over 38,000 porters, and shipping 54 tons of material to the USA, including over 4000 specimens of reptiles and amphibians. The expedition is described in a brief paper by H. F. Osborn (1919), including a detailed map, which is not included in the SSAR volume. Much of the charm of the book derives from the field notes and photographs of Herbert Lang, the expedition leader; unusually for a taxonomic work of the period, many of the photographs are of living animals. The colour plate shows pattern variation in chamaeleons, which must have been novel at the time, though now familiar to all.

Much of the text is purely taxonomic, with details of size, scalation, and colour, though there are also descriptions of gut contents and reproductive status, and distribution maps (often Africa-wide) of many of the reptile species. There are also biogeographical essays by both Schmidt and Noble, which were among the first such analyses of the African herpetofauna. Non-taxonomists will be most interested in the field notes and photographs, which are particularly good on the lizards; most snakes were photographed dead, and there are only sparse field notes on amphibians. There is a striking picture of the Congo green lizard Gastropholis echinata, a large slender lacertid with a unique ruff of long spiny scales on the tail. The function of these scales is still unknown; they may enhance climbing ability (Arnold, 1989), although Lang's field notes indicate that they are sexually dimorphic, and so possibly involved in courtship. There are several descriptions of defence behaviour, including the 'jackknife' saltatory posture of the limbless lizard Feylinia currori, parotid venom squirting (to a distance of several feet) in Bufo superciliaris, and a description of a typical stabbing bite by Atractaspis (Lang was lucky not to lose a finger tip). Many field notes include interesting capture details, such as Varanus exanthematicus extracted from a hole in an old termite mound after biting the end of a spear, and Mabuya quinquetaeniata tangled in traps of tiny grass stalks set by children.

I was particularly interested in the tortoises. Kinixys belliana was thought to be nocturnal ("like most land turtles") because they were so rarely seen during the day. In fact, it is the lack of nocturnal activity in tortoises which is surprising, especially those limited by high temperatures such as the desert tortoise or the Aldabran giant tortoise, although nesting may be prolonged after dusk. K. belliana aestivated in the dry season in savanna, while K. erosa was active all year round in the rain forest. Aestivating tortoises were found with hunting dogs, dug up with spears and cooked; they were preferred to chicken. Lang provides anthropological notes on many species; Agama agama was also eaten, and the head kept as an aphrodisiac amulet or burnt and powdered in banana wine. Bones and shell parts of K. belliana were worn extensively, and the story of a race between the turtle and the elephant ("with the generally accepted ending") was widely known, presumably equivalent to the tortoise and the hare. This fable is appropriate to Kinixys species, which move relatively long distances for small tortoises; K. spekii walks about 400 m per day in cool weather, further than the average American (350 yards: Bryson, 1998).

The value of the SSAR reprint is enhanced by the introductions by Donald Broadley (reptiles) and John Poynton (amphibians). Both give tables of current nomenclature, references to the Congo herpetofauna since 1963 (when the last bibliography was published), and a list of species currently thought to occur there, tabulated into five regions. Only a fraction of the species which are now thought to be present were collected by the AMNH expedition (46% of the 290 reptiles and 22% of the 232 amphibians), partly because they did not sample two of the five Congo zoogeographic regions. Nevertheless, both Broadley and Poynton endorse the current value of the Contributions to taxonomists of the region.

The CAS expedition to the Galapagos collected 266 tortioises, and John Van Denburgh's book includes descriptions and photographs (all of dead animals) of the forms from the different islands. The book begins with a brief history of the early exploitation of the giant tortoises. As with Kinixys, they were highly recommended: "After once tasting the Galapagos tortoise, every other animal food fell greatly in our estimation". The introduction by Peter Pritchard draws attention to the modern nature of Van Denburgh's analysis, with tables of morphometric data and graphs, although these do not make for easy reading. Pritchard gives the current nomenclature of the Galapagos tortoises, though their taxonomy remains controversial. The book also gives brief field notes on each population, with some interesting observations of diet and behaviour made by the expedition's herpetologist J. Slevin. Most of the field notes are, however, limited to the collecting and skinning of the tortoises. These descriptions may be unpalatable to modern readers, although Pritchard points out that the CAS expedition did not fatally reduce the numbers of any Galapagos population.

The production quality of both of these reprints is high, and the SSAR is to be congratulated on making them available again. The Contributions is the more valuable work, and will be of interest to all those working on the African herpetofauna. The Gigantic Land Tortoises will be of interest to every herpetologist who visits the Galapagos. The SSAR Facsimile Reprints in Herpetology series, which now extends to about 50 titles, is thus still finding useful works to reprint. Most of the titles so far have been taxonomic; reprints of some of the classics of functional herpetology would be welcome, such as Benedict's Physiology of large reptiles (1932) or the herpetological parts of Walls' Vertebrate eye (1942).

References

Arnold, E. N. (1989). Systematics and adaptive radiation of equatorial African lizards assigned to the genera Adolfus, Bedriagaia, Gastropholis, Holaspis and Lacerta (Reptilia: Lacertidae). J. Nat. Hist. 23, 525-555.

Bryson, B. (1998). Notes from a big country. London: Doubleday.

Osborn, H. F. (1919). The Congo expedition of the American Museum of Natural History. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 39, xv-xxviii.