PREFACE. V 



ledge the systematic importance of this character, but I consider it 

 to be of subordinate value. 



" I have to return my best thanks to my Mend and fellow-coUegian 

 Eduard v. Martens, M.D., for supplying me with detailed accoimts 

 of species in the Berlin Museum which are wanting in this Collection. 



" Finally, I cannot forbear noticing a very bad practice, now pre- 

 valent, by which new species run the risk of being overburdened 

 with synonyms, and thrown from the first into a state of confusion. 

 In several of the large Collections new species remain named for 

 years, without being established in a regular way by published 

 descriptions. These names are then brought before the public by 

 occasional visitors, especially by dealers, who often apply them to 

 specimens of quite another species, without any further notice 

 where or by whom they were given. Little better is the practice 

 of publishing lists of species, where the new ones are named 

 without any diagnosis. If an author does not choose to give science 

 the benefit of his knowledge of a new species, why not mention 

 it as ' Liophis, n. sp.,' ' Hyperolius, n. sp.,' ' Bufo, n. sp.,' instead 

 of Liopliis regalis, X, Hyperolius gigas, Y, Bufo anomalus, Z ? It 

 is by such malpractice that species come to have, from the origin, 

 different names in different countries. Wherever I have met with 

 specimens bearing such a name, I have accepted it when well chosen, 

 or when I have been able to discover where or by whom it was 



