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INTRODUCTOR Yt torn 
T is only too often that one, not a specialist in some line of 
scientific work asks bread of those who have devoted them- 
selves more especially to that department of science and 
receives but a stone. There are at present many general and 
local works on the subject of the animals and plants about us, 
but few are adapted to the non-specialist and fewer still to the 
layman. ‘To read the majority of these works it is necessary to 
become conversant, often to quite a degree, with the nomenclature 
and technicalities used. This, to say the least, is burdensome to 
a general reader and often results in annulling any interest he 
may have had in the subject. 
The present paper is an attempt to put in a form comprehen- 
sible to general readers an account of the reptiles and batrachians 
of the State. If the paper is too technical to be used. by any 
intelligent person it fails of its purpose. It is, however, impos- 
sible to discuss a subject such as this without the use of any 
uncommon terms; the very fact that the two groups under con- 
sideration are themselves generally unfamiliar is a confirmation 
of this statement. But the attempt has been made in the present 
paper to reduce such terms to a minimum and to fully explain 
those that must be used. 
