1915.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 141 



In the earlier days, Holbrook received some material from the 

 region to the eastward of the swamp (vide Tropidonotus taxispilotus) .2*' 

 In another place (Vol. IV, p. vi), he writes: "J. Hamilton Couper, 

 Esq., of St. Simon's Island, Georgia, has also furnished me with 

 several Serpents of that state; and to him I owe a knowledge of 

 the Gopher Snake, perhaps the largest and most beautiful of our 

 Serpents." Of this form, Mr. Couper says :^^ "I have only seen it 

 in the dry pine hills, south of the Alatamaha; and I have never 

 met with it in the low grounds even of the same vicinity." This 

 may explain its absence in the Okefinokee. In this connection, it 

 is interesting to observe that the same seven absent forms (except 

 Compsosoma corais couperii) occur in Dr. Holbrook's Catalogue-^ ■ 

 of the Ophidia of Georgia. In it 33 species of snakes are listed. In 

 C. S. Brimley's^s Records of Some Reptiles and Batrachians from 

 the Southeastern United States we find 21 species recorded from 

 Georgia. Five (Compsosoma corais couperii and Ahastor erythro- 

 grammus being absent) of the seven species missing from Okefinokee 

 are given in his list as taken either at Riceboro to the northeast or 

 at Mimsville to the west. 



In 1871 and 1876, Paul Fountain visited this area and he writes i^"* 



"I can assure the lover of Nature, if he is prepared to run the risk 

 •of fever, that the farther he forces his way into its gloomy depths, 

 the more remarkable and beautiful will be the forms of animal and 

 vegetable life he will discover." Later he says: "A greater 

 number of reptiles may be found in this swamp than in any other 

 spot I know of in the States." And he reserves his discussion and 

 digression on snakes in general for his chapter on A Day in a Cypress 

 Swamp (Okefinokee). 



In 1888, Cope published On the Snakes of Florida,^° and this 

 paper has considerable bearing on some of the Okefinokee species; 

 but, inasmuch as it is embraced in Cope's great work,^^ The Croco- 

 dilians, Lizards, and Snakes of North America, we will not consider 

 it in detail. In 1896, the next list of some pertinence is Remarks 

 on Some of the Floridan Snakes, by Charles B. Cor^-.-^ He enumer- 

 ates 15 of the commoner species of this State. 



20 N. A. Herpetology, 1842, Vol. IV, p. 36. 



21 N. A. Herp., Vol. Ill, pp. 76, 77. 



22 White's Statistics of the State of Georgia, 1849, Appendix, p. 14. 



23 Biol. Soc. Wash., 1910, Vol. XXIII, pp. 8-18. 



^■* Fountain, Paul. The Great Deserts and Forests of North America, New York, 

 1901, pp. 65, 66. 



25 Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. XI, pp. .381-394. 



2« Rep. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1898, Washington, 1900, pp. 153-1270. 



27 Hunting and Fishing in Florida, Boston, 1896, pp. 124-131. 



