116 ELEVENTH REPORT. 



NOTES ON MICHIGAN REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS. 

 Alexander G. Ruthyen. 



Notwithstanding the fact that iMichigan is situated in eastern North 

 America, where most of the liiological work has been done in this country, 

 it is painfully evident to the student that the data at present avaihible on 

 our fauna leaves much to be desired. This is less true as regards the molluscs 

 and birtls, but of the other grou})s, both vertelirate and invertel)rate, nuich 

 remains to be known before the faunal jjroblems of this region can be com- 

 prehensively attacked. The biological surveys carried on In" the University 

 of Michigan Museum in 1904 and 1905. and by the State Biological Survey 

 in 1906 and 1908, have done much to increase our knowledge of the fauna 

 of Michigan, and it is the purpose of this paper to place on record some 

 additional data on the reptiles and am])hiljians of the State, that have 

 accumulated at the Museum mostly as the result of these surveys. 



Rana cantabrigensis Baird. The Michigan Wood-frogs have usually been 

 listed as R. sylvatica. The writer ' listed a series from the Porcupine Mount- 

 ains as sylvatica, in 1904, Ijut these were later, with an Isle Royale specimen, 

 determined as R. cantabrigensis by Dr. Stejneger. - Those from the southern 

 peninsula have always been listed as R. sylvatica. 



The writer has recently, in working up the collection from Huron county, 

 had occasion to go over the whole matter, and it developes that all the Mich- 

 igan Wood-frogs, both from the northern and southern ]ieninsidas, are to 

 be referred to R. cantabrigensis, R, sylvatica being apparently excluded from 

 our limits. R. cantabrigensis may be distinguished from R. sylvatica by its 

 short hind-legs. In the former the length of the hind-leg to the heel equals 

 the distance from the anus to some point in front of the eye, only occasion- 

 ally extending beyond the snout and then only slightly. In R. sylvatica 

 the hind-leg reaches considerably beyond the end of the snout when the limb 

 is pressed against the side. Dr. Stejneger has kindly confirmed my deter- 

 minations by a com])arison of s}jecimens from southern Michigan with 

 typical specimens of sylvatica from the east. 



Thamnophis butleri, (Cope). The l)iological survey of 1908 brought Imck 

 specimens of the Butler Garter-snake from Stony Island and Rush Lake, 

 Huron county, thus extending the known range considerably to the noi'th- 

 ward. The most northern record previously known was Pontiac, Oakland 

 county. ^ It was apparently ciuite rare in the sand region along the south 

 shore of Saginaw Bay. 



Elaphe vulpinus (Baird and Girard). The only Michigan record of the 

 Fox-snake, known to the writer, is Grosse Isle, Wayne county, * in the ex- 

 treme southeastern ])art of the State. There is a single specimen in the 

 Museum from Pearl Beach, St. Clair county, and Mr. C. K. Dodge, of Port 

 Huron, has recently sent in a specimen from Harsens Island (St. Clair county), 

 Lake St. Clair. The expedition of 1908 found it to be cpite common in the 

 sand region along the south shore of Saginaw l^ay (Hm"on county). 



'Sixth Ann. Rept. Michigan Academy of Science, p. 191. 



-Michisaii Geol. Sur\ev, Ann. Rept., 1905, p. 110. 



3U. S. National Museum, Bull. 61, p. 92. 



^Cope, Rept. U. S. iNational Museum, 1898 (1900), p. S.'^2. 



