490 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 
XXXIII. The Reptiles and Batrachians of the Edinburgh 
District. By WItLutAM Evans, F.R.S.E. 
(Read 21st March 1894, and revised for publication to 18th June.) 
In laying the following account of the classes Reptilia 
and Batrachia before the Royal Physical Society, I do so not 
on the strength of any important discoveries, for I have none 
to announce, but simply as a contribution towards a fuller 
and more complete history of the fauna of the district 
around us than we yet possess—an object, it seems to me, 
well worthy of more combined effort on the part of resident 
naturalists than it has hitherto received. The completion of 
such an extensive piece of faunal work, means of necessity 
many years and many labourers, but its realisation is surely 
worth an effort; and it is gratifying to know that at this 
moment several groups, both vertebrate and invertebrate, 
are receiving systematic attention at the hands of Fellows 
of the Society. 
The number of Reptiles it has been customary to place on 
the British list is nine, but two of them, namely, the Hawk’s- 
bill Turtle (Chelone imbricata) and the Leathery Turtle 
(Dermochelys coriacea), being merely accidental visitors of the 
rarest description, cannot properly be regarded as part of the 
fauna of these islands; and as regards a third, namely, 
the Green Lizard (Lacerta viridis), Mr G. A. Boulenger, of 
the British Museum, informs me there is no evidence of its 
existence in any part of Great Britain. Excluding these 
three then, we are left with six as the sum total of the 
British Reptilia. All are to be met with in England; but 
it may well be doubted if more than three of them occur in 
Scotland as indigenous animals,—these are, the Viviparous 
Lizard (Lacerta vivipara), the Slow-worm (Anguis fragilis), 
and the Adder (Vipera berus). The doubtful species are 
the Sand Lizard (Lacerta agilis), the Ringed Snake (Lropido- 
notus natriz), and the Smooth Snake (Coronella austriaca). 
_Examples of the Ringed Snake have, indeed, been captured 
in the south of Scotland, but under circumstances which 
seem clearly to point to its artificial introduction. Genuine 
captures of the other two, however, have yet to be produced, 
