AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES COLLECTED BY THE 



SMITHSONIAN BIOLOGICAL SURVEY OF 



THE PANAMA CANAL ZONE 



By KARL PATTERSON SCHMIDT 



Assistant Curator of Reptiles and Amphibians, Field Museum of Natural History 



The opportunity to study the plant and animal life of a tropical 

 area presented during the construction of the Panama Canal was 

 seized by the Smithsonian Biological Survey of the Panama Canal 

 Zone. The collections of cold-blooded vertebrates for this survey 

 were made under a cooperative agreement between the Smithsonian 

 Institution, the United States Bureau of Fisheries, and the Field 

 Museum of Natural History. Dr. S. E. Meek of the Field Museum 

 and Dr. S. F. Hildebrand of the Bureau of Fisheries were actively 

 engaged in collecting in Panama from January to May, 191 1, and 

 from January to March, 1912 ; their collecting was primarily ichthyo- 

 logical but considerable numbers of amphibians and reptiles were 

 incidentally preserved. This collection was more than equalled by 

 the material collected by E. A. Goldman in the course of his field- 

 work in Panama for the Smithsonian Survey. Goldman's report on 

 the " Mammals of Panama " ^ contains an excellent account of his 

 field-work and a map on which his collecting stations may be located. 

 Spelling of locality names in the present paper follows Goldman's 

 map wherever possible. Minor additions to the Survey collection of 

 amphibians and reptiles were made by H. Pittier and E. D. Christo- 

 pherson. The total collection (exclusive of the turtles) amounts to 

 758 specimens, representing 82 species. 



So much attention is now focussed on the biology of the Panama 

 Canal Zone by the existence of the Barro Colorado Island Labora- 

 tory, maintained by the Institute for Research in Tropical America, 

 that it seems desirable to record the herpetological collections of the 

 Smithsonian Survey, and the following list has been prepared at the 

 suggestion of Dr. Leonhard Stejneger. I am indebted to Miss Doris 

 Cochran of the United States National Museum for assembling this 

 material for shipment to the Field Museum, and to Dr. E. R. Dunn 

 of Haverf ord College, who has an extensive report on the amphibians 



^ Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 69, no. 5, 1920. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 89, No. 1 



