SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 83 



tile House consist of large indoor lizard cages for the iguanas 

 and monitors. A series of thirty-two small, glass-fronted cages 

 has been provided for the North American serpents. This ar- 

 rangement enables our keepers to give individual attention to 

 many delicate species. Exhibited in this way the smaller snakes 

 are also seen to better advantage and there is less confusion 

 for the visitors in consulting labels. 



No serious losses have occurred in the reptile department 

 during the past year. Our larger serpents remain in good 

 condition, although one of them is now undergoing an amazing 

 fast, approaching twenty months' duration. The reptiles longest 

 in the Park are alligators, two of which have been twenty years 

 in captivity. Our king cobra has been on exhibition nine years' 

 time, and there are several southern water moccasins represent- 

 ing successive generations bred in captivity. We are now keep- 

 ing card indexes embracing data of all important specimens. 

 As the Park grows older we shall thus acquire interesting sta- 

 tistics on the longevity of our captives and their history in 

 captivity. 



During the year the Curator has prepared a lengthy and 

 elaborately illustrated paper for Zoologica on "The Feeding 

 Habits of Serpents." In this the character of the food, methods 

 of subduing the prey, the dentition and parts of the skull struc- 

 ture relating to feeding, are treated, together with many year's 

 accumulations of notes on living examples. 



Among the important accessions during the year the fol- 

 lowing are worthy of special mention : 



Four albino alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) ; 1 gavial 

 (Gavialis gangeticus) ; 2 Central American crocodiles (Croco- 

 dilus americanus) ; 6 snake-necked turtles {Chelodina longicol- 

 lis) ; 3 star tortoises (Testudo elegaus) ; 8 Cunningham's skinks 

 {Egernia cimninghami) ; 1 Australian monitor (Varanus 

 gouldii) ; 2 Ceylonese monitors, {Varanus salrator) ; 2 frilled 

 lizards, (Amphibohirus barbatus) ; 3 fer-de-lance, {Lachesis 

 atrox) ; 1 bushmaster, (Lachesis miitus) ; 1 black-tailed rattle- 

 snake, (Crotalus molossus) ; 1 red rattlesnake, (Crotalus niitch- 

 elli pyrrus) ; 4 Indian cobras, (Naja tripndia7is) ; 1 Russell's 

 viper, (Viper )-iisselli) ; 3 Indian pythons, (Pijthon molurus) ; 

 1 African python, (Python sebae) ; 2 rainbow boas, (Epicrates 

 cefichris) ; 2 Central American boas, (Boa imperator) ; 2 Indian 

 bull frogs, (Rana tigrina) , and 8 climbing perch, (Anabas 

 scandens) . 



