INTRODUCTION XI 



specimens have placed them in airtight jars in light-proof rooms. Although 

 the patterns of some of the older type specimens have faded, they are still 

 preserv'ed very distinctly on many. With the passage of time, a few of the 

 types have softened and disintegrated despite constant care, but instances of 

 such loss are becoming fewer as the techniques for preserving material 

 become better understood. 



Some of the early collections, especially those from the western United 

 States, were labeled poorly or not at all, because there were few towns or 

 permanent settlements by which to fix the locations of the collecting sites. 

 Often an expedition on the move had to carry its biological material in 

 crowded boxes, which were then shipped east as opportunity offered, some- 

 times without any field journals or notes to indicate the route along which 

 the specimens had been collected. Thus the specimens collected during a 

 whole expedition might be credited in subsequent museum cataloging to the 

 point from which they had been shipped, while their actual place or places 

 of origin might have been several hundred miles distant. Such errors 

 in recording type localities have usually been cleared up by later collecting 

 and study by specialists, and in the following list the corrections are given. 



The first specimens received by the Smithsonian Institution were not 

 always cataloged individually. Often many examples presumed to be of a 

 single species and received from the same locality and collector were all given 

 the same catalog num.ber. Later, when it was found necessary to refer to 

 specific individuals from the lot, they were renumbered. This practice led 

 to much confusion because the old label was frequently almost illegible, and 

 thus correct data were not always inscribed after the new entry. When Dr. 

 Stejneger took charge of the collection in 1839, and beginning with catalog 

 number 14856, a single number was assigned to each specimen (except eggs 

 and tadpoles), a change that has simplified our bookkeeping considerably 

 and has allowed a particular specimen always to be indicated without 

 possibility of confusion. An in front of our catalog number indicates that 

 the specimen was once a part of the collection of the Division of Comparative 

 Anatomy, which functioned from 1885 to 1914. Most specimens so marked 

 are skeletons, skulls, or dry skins. 



Most of the type material is preserved in alcohol. No special mention is 

 made in this list of the condition of each type specimen. It may be assumed 

 to be good or fair unless a statement to the contrary is made. 



Scientific material that has been studied by many scientists becomes valu- 

 able because it exemplifies the different interpretations that have been placed 

 upon it. In this respect the national collection of reptile and amphibian 

 types is one of the foremost because many of the herpetologists of the past 

 century have done extensive research here. The considerable number of 

 type names listed in the following pages is a tribute to their industry as well 

 as to the extent and value of the collection itself. 



