iv Preface 



The bibliography, while not complete, will be 

 found to contain most of the important works 

 dealing with this group of reptiles. 



The author is grateful to Mr. Raymond L. 

 Ditmars and to his publishers, Messrs. Doubleday, 

 Page & Co., and Messrs. Sturgis & Walton, for 

 the use of a number of plates; to the Macmillan 

 Company and to the United States Bureau of 

 Fish and Fisheries for the same privilege; to the 

 National Museum for photographs of the skull of 

 the gavial; and to the Smithsonian Institution for 

 the use of the plates from researches published by 

 them and included herein. 



Proper acknowledgment is made, under each 

 borrowed figure, to the author from whom it is 

 taken. 



MORGANTOWN, W. VA. 



May i, 1915. 



