TWENTY-FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT 81 



House, both in the exhibition halls and the keepers' passageways, 

 were provided with high-power nitrogen lamps. The illumina- 

 tion of the building during dark, stormy days, or at night for 

 purposes of feeding, has been greatly improved. 



The scientific work of the Curator of Reptiles during the 

 year has included the preparation of various articles for the 

 Bulletin, the most important of these being a description of 

 the recurrence of the seventeen-year "Locust" and numerous 

 photographs showing incidents of this insect's emergence in the 

 northeastern portion of the United States. Material has also 

 been filed, from numerous notes, as the basis for scientific articles 

 dealing with the habits of hibernation and occurrence of poison- 

 ous snakes in the eastern United States. Early in the year, the 

 Curator began the preparation of motion pictures for exhibition 

 at the Annual Meeting. These included careful portrayal of the 

 rarer mammals, reptiles and amphibians which had arrived dur- 

 ing 1920. 



The following are the more important purchases during the 

 year: 1 regal python (about 20 feet in length) ; 2 black-tailed 

 pythons (respectively 16 and 12 feet in length) ; 9 diamond 

 pythons, 1 rock python, 1 anaconda, 1 boa constrictor, 4 Indian 

 rat snakes, 6 European vipers, 6 Pacific rattlesnakes, 13 blue- 

 tongued lizards, 9 Cunningham skinks, 3 Gila monsters, 1 2 

 collared lizards, 6 iguanas, 11 spike-tailed lizards, 12 green liz- 

 ards, 2 Ceylonese monitors, 3 African chameleons, 1 radiated tor- 

 toise, 2 leopard tortoises, 1 hinge-backed tortoise, 2 side-necked 

 turtles, 2 Muhlenberg turtles, 1 Indian crocodile, 1 Senegal 

 crocodile, 20 smooth-clawed frogs and 10 axolotls. 



The most important addition to the collection in the Reptile 

 House V. as the Australian lung fish, Ceratodus fosteri, which ar- 

 rived on October 31, 1920. Another important addition was in 

 the shape of three specimens of the rare and beautiful Florida 

 tree toad, Hyla gratiosa. 



Director Beebe shipped a series of interesting reptiles from 

 the Zoological Society's Tropical Research Station in South 

 America. Among them were two young anacondas, iguanas, tor- 

 toises and turtles. 



There was only one loss of consequence in the reptile collec- 

 tion during the entire year. This was a specimen of the Indian 

 cobra, which has been oji exhibition over twelve years. This 



