SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 85 



The annual collecting trip of the Curator was particularly 

 successful. Weather conditions were uniformly good. Over 

 two hundred specimens, representing nine species, were col- 

 lected. This greatly strengthened the series of local reptiles, 

 the members of which cannot be purchased from the animal 

 dealers, and usually are collected by the Curator and the keep- 

 ers. In order to obtain in abundance the examples representing 

 the State's reptilian fauna, it is necessary to go a considerable 

 distance from New York City. The Curator's work was in the 

 vicinity of Black Lake, Sullivan County, New York, which is 

 considerably out of the well trodden zone of summer visitors. 

 An automobile was for the first time used in this work, and found 

 of great advantage over a horse-drawn vehicle. In a period of 

 seventeen days the car's speedometer showed we travelled over 

 300 miles of mountain roads. Several new ledges were hunted 

 for rattlesnakes, and between tracts of snake country much col- 

 lecting was done for the insect department. 



REPTILES OF THE ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 



December 31, 1912. 



Species. Specimens. 



Chelonia, 32 253 



Crocodilia, 8 38 



Lacertilia, 25 211 



Ophidia, 52 366 



Amphibians 18 232 



Total 135 1,100 



SUMMARY OF COLLECTIONS. 



A census of the animals in the Zoological Park, taken Jan- 

 uary 1, 1913, is as follows : 



Species. Specimens. 



Mammals 210 689 



Birds, 903 3,038 



Reptiles, 135 1,100 



Total, 1,248 4,827 



