1892.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 331 



THE BATRACHIA AND REPTILIA OF NORTH WESTERN TEXAS. 



BY E. D. COPE. 



The present paper is based on collections made along the eastern 

 border of the Staked Plain of Texas, between Big Spring (on the 

 Texas Pacific R. R.) on the south, and the Salt Fork of the Red 

 River, near Clarendon (on the Denver and Fort Worth R. R.) on 

 the north, a distance of about 250 miles. The collections were made 

 incidentally to geologic and paleontologic explorations conducted by 

 a party of the Geologic Survey of Texas, which was under the direc- 

 tion of Mr. William F. Cummins. While attached to this party, I 

 picked up such specimens as came in my way, and a good many 

 others were obtained by Mr. Cummins and by Mr. William L. 

 Black of the party. 



The region traversed presents great variety of landscape, plains 

 alternating with hilly country, and in some cases with bad lands. 

 Water issues at many points from beneath the superficial cenozoic 

 beds of the Staked Plains, forming the head tributaries of the 

 Colorado, Brazos and Red rivers. This water, however, generally 

 soon disappears beneath the sand that fills the beds of the creeks and 

 rivers, or appears only in pools. Under such circumstances it is 

 frequently impregnated with saline and alkaline salts. The springs 

 are generally the resort of the numerous cattle that graze in this 

 region, and jvhen this is the case, are so contaminated by their presence 

 as to be unfit for human use. Dead cattle were common in the few 

 flowing streams at the time of my visit, so that it became necessary 

 to dig for a supply of water which should be partially relieved of 

 impurities by filtration. The best water, apart from a few protected 

 springs, was obtained from artificial reservoirs filled with rain water 

 which are made by the owners of cattle-ranges for their stock. In 

 these, turtles, batrachians, water-snakes, are not uncommon. The 

 route of the expedition followed theeasternescarpnient of the Staked 

 Plain, but at times crossed its spurs, or entered its limits for twenty 

 or thirty miles. 



The total number of species enumerated is thirty-three. These 

 are distributed as follows. Batrachia : JJrodela, 1 species ; Salientia, 

 7 species. Reptilia : Testudinata, 5 species ; LacertlUa, 8 species ; 

 Ophidia, 12 species. A comparatively small number of species are 



