IDENTITY OF HALLOWELL'S SNAKE GENERA MEGA- 

 LOPS AND AEPIDEA 



By Leonhard Stejneger, 

 Head Curator of Biology, United States National Museum 



It has long been realized that Hallowell's paper "Report upon the 

 Reptilia of the North Pacific Exploring Expedition, under com- 

 mand of Capt. John Rogers, U. S. N.", edited after the author's 

 death by E. D. Cope, and published in the Proceedings of the 

 Academy of Sciences, Philadelphia, 1860, (pp. 480-510) contained 

 many errors both as to identifications, descriptions, and localities. 

 Many of these have been cleared up from time to time, but some 

 of them have remained a mystery to the present time. One of the 

 difficulties has been that the specimens were not originally properly 

 recorded and labeled. The collections made by the expedition were 

 taken to Philadelphia to be worked up, as there was nobody then 

 in Washington who knew anything about exotic reptiles and am- 

 phibians, Hallowell being the only man in the United States who 

 up to then had any experience in that line, except Girard whose 

 connection with the Smithsonian Institution ceased about that time. 

 Later the specimens were returned to the LTnited States National 

 Museum and added to a vast accumulation of uncataloguecl herpeto- 

 logical material. In 18G9 Prof. S. F. Baird, overwhelmed though 

 he was by other work, began to catalogue part of these collections, 

 giving them numbers in the record book and on the paper labels, 

 but without taking time to identify the species, and often not even 

 indicating whether the specimen was a snake, lizard, or frog, in most 

 cases only noting the locality and name of collector in very general 

 terms, trusting to the original labels when filling in the details later. 

 By 1881 many of the old paper labels had deteriorated to such an 

 extent as to be illegible and the decision was made to attach a tin 

 tag with the stamped catalogue number to each specimen. Un- 

 fortunately, by this time Professor Baird had given up direct con- 

 nection w4th the reptile collection, and the clerk to whom this work 



No. 2643.— Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 69, Art. 16. 



2997—26 1 



