INTRODUCTION TO SECOND EDITION 



The first edition of the Check List seems to have been useful. 

 Great changes have come in our knowledge of the North 

 American fauna since it was written, so great indeed that 

 there has been a general request for a revised edition. This 

 we have attempted in as impartial a manner as possible. 

 Probably no one will agree with all our conclusions. The 

 reason for issuing this revision now is that the present seems 

 to be as good a time as any later date, in view of the fact that 

 the last word will not be said for years to come. 



Recent writers have often erred egregiously in the use of 

 accents in Spanish place names. We confess it is difficult to 

 satisfy the puristic conventions. Our general rule is to accent 

 all Spanish words in which the last syllable is stressed and 

 which end in a vowel. 



It is not the real province of a Check List to initiate 

 changes in usage except where nomenclature does not con- 

 form to the International Code. We admit new species and 

 subspecies as they are proposed, except where their validity 

 is definitely contra-indicated. As to the various more funda- 

 mental changes in classification which have been proposed we 

 can only say that we are inclined to consider them very sym- 

 pathetically, but they have not as yet stood the test of time. 

 We have, however, omitted the term Eublepharidae most 

 willingly. But Pseudacris and Manculus, which some would 

 suppress, are convenient names for apparently natural asso- 

 ciations of species, and, therefore, who would ask more reason 

 for their retention in the ranks of valid genera.'* It is to be 

 hoped that American herpetology may not fall into the un- 

 happy condition now seen in our ornithology with its over- 

 multiplied monotypic genera: still, however, any reasonable 

 efforts to break up the great unwieldy genera are certainly 

 welcome. 



