THE HERPETOLOGY OF CUBA. 
INTRODUCTION. 
No previous attempt has been made to produce a complete list of the 
amphibians and reptiles of Cuba with descriptions of the species. It should be 
expressly understood that the senior author is responsible for the actual writ- 
ing of this paper, for the nomenclature, and taxonomic descriptions, and the 
junior author has contributed many details of distribution and notes upon 
habits and habitats; his work has been chiefly in the Guantanamo Basin, and 
of this region he has the intimate knowledge which only long residence can give. 
The senior author besides having been privileged to collect with his associate 
upon Monte Libano, and elsewhere about Guantanamo, has visited various 
chosen localities in all of the other provinces, usually several times. Thus one 
or other of the writers has himself collected, with a few exceptions, every defi- 
nitely known Cuban reptile or amphibian. 
In 1880 Gundlach published his classic Erpetologia Cubana in Havana and 
in the natural course of events many changes have taken place since that time 
which have affected the nomenclature and status of the species treated, while 
new forms have been discovered. 
SYNOPSIS OF THE SPECIES. 
GUNDLACH in 1880 recognized fifty-four species of reptiles (aside from 
marine tortoises) and twelve species of amphibians. In 1914, only sixty-three 
species altogether were recognized (Barbour, Reptiles and Amphibians of the 
West Indies, Mem. M. C. Z., 44), many of Gundlach’s names being reduced to 
the synonymy, or otherwise disposed of, and but comparatively few new species 
described. The following comparative table shows the present status of the 
species mentioned in Gundlach’s Erpetologia Cubana, (Habana 1880, p. 1-99). 
