PEEFATOEY REMAEKS. 



The present Catalogue originated in this wise — 



Having, at the commencement of the rains, to return to Cal- 

 cutta on duty from Eangoon, where I had been paying some 

 attention to the Eeptiles of the country, I determined to seize the 

 opportunity offered to me, of examining the types of those 

 species described by Blyth from Birma and Tenasserim, and 

 any other specimens in the Museum of the Asiatic Society of 

 Bengal, which might enlarge my knowledge of the Eeptiles of 

 the Province. 



Finding that Dr. Anderson, Curator of the Indian Museum, 

 was engaged in a searching enquiry into the state of the 

 collections, I offered to compile a Catalogue of the Eeptiles 

 in the Museum, and thereby, to some extent, lighten his labours. 

 My offer being cordially acceded to by Dr. Anderson and the 

 Council, the present work is the result, and I trust that it will 

 not only clear up some erroneous identifications, but be the 

 means of directing attention to the comparatively poor collection 

 which the Museum possesses of Indian reptiles, when it should 

 have a much finer one. 



The list of desiderata is so very extensive, that I trust many 

 large accessions may be looked for, when members of the Society 

 and others, scattered throughout the length and breadth of this 

 glorious land, only know what is required of them. With tliis view 

 I urged that this Catalogue should be published as an extra num- 

 ber of the Journal, that by its circulation to members, the wants 

 of the Museum might become more generally known. 



In the preparation of this Catalogue, I have had the inesti- 

 mable advantage of following ' Dr. Gunther's Eeptiles of British 

 India,' which I may be said to have taken as the basis of my 

 own. though I have not slavishly followed it, when I thought an 



