HERPETOLOGrY OF PORTO RICO. 569 



BATRACHIANS AND REPTILES OF PORTO RICO. 



Custom and practical considerations account for the batrachians 

 and reptiles still being- treated of together, though it has been dem- 

 onstrated long- ago and now universally admitted by naturalists that 

 they constitute separate classes, more nearly related perhaps to the 

 birds on the one hand and to the fishes on the other than among 

 themselves. The nonscientitic public, however, can not be blamed 

 for confounding the two classes, especially since the distinguishing 

 characters are chiefly anatomical, and it is consequently the more 

 necessary that their distinctness be insisted on and emphasized when- 

 ever the herpetologist, whose studies embrace both, addresses himself 

 to this public. As it is among the objects of the present work to 

 afford those who have not given special attention to this study a ready 

 means of identifying the "creeping' 1 animals of Porto Rico, it may 

 not be out of place here to mention that the members of the two 

 classes occurring there can be distinguished by external characters as 

 follows: 



I. Batrachia. — Bod} 7 covered with a soft skin and not incased in a 

 bom- shell. 



II. R&pUlia. — Body covered with horny scales and plates, or 

 incased in a bony shell, with a horny or leathery covering. 



Class BATRACHIA. 



Of the three orders composing the living batrachians only one, 

 namely, the Salientia, or tailless batrachians, is represented in Porto 

 Rico. This order, usually known as frogs and toads, again falls into 

 three suborders, of which Porto Rico also has representatives in only 

 one, namely, the Linguata, that is, those with tongue hut no ribs. 

 Two families with three genera comprise the Porto Rican fauna and 

 may be distinguished as follows: 



KEY TO THE BATRACHIANS OF PORTO RICO ACCORDING TO GENERA. 



a 1 No teeth; a large gland (parotoid) on each side of neck; skin very rough, warty 



{Bufonidx) Bufo, p. 569. 



a 2 Maxillary and vomerine teeth; no parotoid gland; skin more or less smooth 

 (Leptoiluiii/liihe). 



b l Tip of fingers not dilated, tapering Leptodactylus, p. 574. 



b 1 Tip of fingers dilated into regular disks Eleutherodactylus, p. 582. 



Genus BUFO" Laurenti. 



1768. Bufo Laurenti, Synops. Rept., p. 25 (type B. vulgaris). 



1788. Buffo LACEPfeDE, Hist, Nat. Quadr. Ovip. Serp., 1, Syn. meth. (emend.). 



1814. Batrachus Rafinesque, Specchio d. Sci., (Palermo) II, fasc. 7 (substit, ). 



« Latin, =toad. 



