CHAPTER XIV. 

 Reptiles and Batrachians. 



IN a memoir on the Reptiles and Batrachians of the Solomon 

 Islands, which was read before the Zoological Society, on May 

 6th, 1884,^ Mr. Boulenger remarked that very little was known 

 about the herpetology of these islands until two,important collections, 

 which I sent to the British Museum in 1883 and 1884, brought to 

 light several new and interesting forms, such as could hardly have 

 been expected from this region. " The position of this group of 

 islands on the limits of two great zoological districts," — this author 

 j)roceeded to observe — "renders the study of its fauna of special 

 interest, as it is the point where many of the Papuasian and 

 Polynesian forms intermingle. Curiously, all the Batrachians be- 

 long to species not hitherto found elsewhere, and one of them is 

 even so strongly modified as to be the type of a distinct family." 



According to Mr. Boulenger, the Reptiles may be grouped under 

 four headings, viz. : — 



1. Species belonging to both the Papuasian and Polynesian 

 districts. 



2. Indo-Malayan or Papuasian species, not extending further 

 east or south-east. 



3. Polynesian species, not extending further noith and west than 

 New Ireland. 



4. Species not hitherto found elsewhere than in the Solomons 

 (and New Ireland.) 



1 



Gymnodactylus pelagicus 

 Gehyra oeeanica 

 Mabuia cyanura 

 Platurus fasciatus. 



' Published inthe Transactions of the Society ; vol. xii., part i., 1886. The diagnoses of 

 most of the new species in my collections were given in the Proceedings for 1884 : p. 210. 

 Vide also " Annals and Jlagazine of Natural History " (5) xii., 1883. 



