82 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



There were no deaths to speak of among the rare and costly 

 specimens, many of which are establishing interesting records 

 of longevity. The curator of the department is now at work 

 upon a table of these records, and similar records for the mam- 

 mals. In the past five years we have saved much money and 

 permanently strengthened the collection, by eliminating from 

 our purchases the greater number of representatives of species 

 that have been found to be delicate and short-lived in captivity. 



Early in 1915 special efforts were made, in counteracting 

 the lack of Old World species, to obtain a very full series of 

 reptiles and amphibians'from the southern states and the South- 

 west. A collector on the Pacific coast did particularly good 

 work in supplying us with lizards, snakes and different species 

 of toads. Two collectors in Texas sent on much interesting ma- 

 terial, and a large number of very satisfactory reptiles came 

 from Florida. The Curator and Keeper Palmer collected several 

 hundred specimens of the local reptiles in Sullivan County, New 

 York and Pike County, Penn. ; those specimens representing 

 about twelve species. 



Our South American accessions came from several sources. 

 Mr. R. R. Mole, of Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, who has steadily 

 supplied us with tropical American reptiles since the opening 

 of the Park, made special efforts to obtain a large series of 

 specimens. From him we obtained a number of species of par- 

 ticularly interesting frogs, toads and tree-toads that we have 

 never previously exhibited, and apparently have never anywhere 

 been exhibited alive before this. An expedition of the Society to 

 Para resulted in the addition of several interesting reptiles, and 

 near the close of the year, we received a particularly important 

 collection of South American poisonous snakes through the cour- 

 tesy of Dr. Vital Brazil, Director of the Institute of Serum- 

 Therapy, at Sao Paulo, Brazil. 



The scientific work accomplished by the reptile department 

 during 1915, comprises a quite elaborate review of little-known 

 frogs and toads of the Old and New World by Richard Deckert 

 of the Reptile House staff. Mr. Deckert made careful studies 

 of a number of rare species on exhibition and for the first time 

 prepared colored illustrations of these species from life. He com- 

 bined his observation of habits with detailed descripitions of 

 species, in an article of over thirty pages, illustrated with color 

 plates, that appeared in a recent number of Zoologica, (Vol. 

 II, No. 1). Numerous Bulletin articles and notes concerning 



