AF^F^ENDIX: I. 



LOUISIANA HERPETOLOGY. 



GEO. E. BEYER. 



(Communicated December 17, 1897.) 



The object of til e ])reseut paper is to serve as an intro- 

 duction to the herpetology of our State, and to be the founda- 

 tion of a check-list, which may x^ossibly be enlarged by future 

 additions, after the doubtful forms have been more fully and 

 unquestionably established. 



While the study of the Reptiles aud Batrachians has 

 found many disciples, and much information in regard to 

 their life-histories, their geographical distribution, etc., has 

 been elicited, there is no class of the animal kingdom of which 

 there still exists such gross ignorance, or which has been, 

 through lack of interest and general observatiou, subjected 

 to so much superstitious abhorrence as the creatures confined 

 within its accepted limits. Important points of the history 

 of many forms remain unknown to this day, and biologists 

 have striven in vain to clear these obscurities or to contro- 

 vert purposely e:saggerated accounts of popular errors by 

 establish ed. f^icts. 



Animal life, it is well known, has been divided into sev- 

 eral faunal regions, each exhibiting certain pronounced pecu- 

 liarities, due to climatic and topographical influences. Thus 

 the peculiar condition of a certain district or realm is repro- 

 duced, as it were, in the nature of its living inhabitants. 



The ISTorth- American or Nearccic realm presents in the 

 distribution of types six well-defined sections or subdivisions, 

 which are commonly known as the Eastern, Central, Pacific, 

 Sonoran, Lower Oalifornian and Austro-riparian regions, all 

 of which present marked peculiarities, either in an abundance, 

 or a total absence of certain forms. The latter region com- 

 prises iSTorth Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, 

 Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, and in it we find the 

 greatest development of eastern reptile life. A number 

 of genera are confined to its boundaries, while the Eastern 

 region possesses no forms exclusively its own; all genera be- 

 ing distributed over some, or all of the other regioiLS. 



The reptiles which are distinctly peculiar to the AusJ:ro- 

 riparian region embrace some 25 genera, a few of which are 

 also representatives of tlie Neotroinc realm. The Louisiana 



