HEEPETOLOGY OF PORTO RICO. 557 



above and .slate-gray beneath, but which according- to Ledru has the 

 '•color on the back agreeably marbled with sea-green; pale and 

 speckled with black on the belly." 



The next time we hear of Porto Ricau reptiles is in a paper by Dr. 

 C. Moritz/' who collected insects for the museum in Berlin during 

 four months in the spring of 1835. On page 375 he presents a few 

 general remarks on the reptiles, of no particular interest except that 

 it appears from his account that snakes were much more numei'ous at 

 that time than at present, for he speaks of places in which one 

 scarcely could make a few steps without seeing- several snakes. That 

 he was not nmch of a herpetologist is evident from his reference 

 to Caicilla, b}^ which he apparently means either Typhlopx or 

 A')nphishdena. 



Long Ijefore this time, however, a certain Monsieur Plee had also 

 visited Porto Rico, apparently on his way from New York to Mar- 

 tinique. He sent his specimens from the latter place to the Museum 

 d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, where the reptiles without any discrim- 

 ination were all credited to Martinique. Amphl><tmna cceca^ Anolls 

 cristafellm, Anolls jjulchellus, and (Jela^tus 2yleii belong to this category. 



With the DanifL'h Virgin Islands so near to Porto Rico, it was quite 

 natural that specimen,-; from the latter should occasionally find their 

 way to the museum in Copenhagen. Thus Reinhardt was enabled, in 

 1843, to describe the large boa as Boa inornata. Later, Mr. Riise, 

 an apothecary in St. Thomas, who collected extensively in the Danish 

 islands, visited Vieques personally and sent a number of Porto Rican 

 specimens about the same time to the Smithsonian Institution and to 

 the museum in Copenhagen. The former came under the notice of 

 Cope, and scattered references to them were made b}^ him in 1862. 

 In the following year Professor Reinhardt and Dr. Luetken published 

 their admirable contril)utions to the herpetology of the West Indian 

 Archipelago, particularly that of the Danish West Indian Islands (see 

 Bibliography) in which the first list of Porto Rican reptiles and batra- 

 chians based on reliable material was published. The list was a very 

 meager one, embi-acing only one batrachian,* four snakes, hve lizards, 

 and two turtles, together eleven species, as follows; 



1 ? Hylodes antiUensis (Vieques), 



2 'I Alsophis antiUensis (Vieques). 



3. Alsophis portoricensis. 



4. Chilahothrus inornatus. 



5. Typlilops richardil. 



«Arcli. Naturg., II, 1836, pp. 373-392. 



^ In their tabular synopsis of West Indian species, Porto Rico is credited with one 

 species of batrachians (Author's separate, p. 7), though by an oversight the species 

 is not indicated in the table. The only batrachian referred to in the text as belong- 

 ing to Porto Rico is a young Hylodes from Vieques doubtfully referred to H. antiUensis 

 (Author's separate, p. 57). 



