HERPETOLOGY OF PORTO RICO. 557 



above and slate-gray beneath, but which according to Ledru lias 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 Rican reptiles is in a paper by Dr. 

 C. Moritz," who collected insects for the museum in Berlin during 

 four months in the spring of L835. 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 numerous 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 much of a herpetologist is evident from his reference 

 to Cascttia, Irv which he apparently means either Typhlqps or 

 Amphisbaena. 



Long before 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. Amphisbcena cceca, Anolis 

 cristatellus, Anolis pulchettus, and Celestus pl&ii belong to this categoiy. 



With the Danish Virgin Islands so near to Porto Rico, it was quite 

 natural that specimens 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 by him in 1862. 

 In the following }^ear Professor Reinhardt and Dr. Luetken published 

 their admirable contributions 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, embracing only one batrachian, 6 four snakes, five lizards, 

 and two turtles, together eleven species, as follows: 



1 % Ilylodes antillenxix (Vieques). 



2 % Alsophis antillenxix (Vieques). 

 3. AhopMs portoricensis. 



1. ChUabothrus inornatus. 

 5. Typhlops richai'dii. 



"Arch. Naturg., II, 1836, pp. 373-392. 



b 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. antillensis 

 (Author's separate, p. 57). 



