1892. J AND BATRACHIANS FROM BARBARY. 5 



great degree, why the collection of reptiles made by me is so com- 

 paratively meagre. 



M. Lataste, the most recent and successful investigator of the 

 Vertebrate fauna of Barbary, has recorded his observations on the 

 Mammalia inhabiting that region in two works\ He has been able, 

 by his collections and extensive researches in the country and by the 

 labours of other naturalists, to bring up the number of Mammalian 

 species inhabiting Barbary to 84. 



Among the eleven species of small Mammalia found by me the 

 only one calling for special remark is Plecotus awitus, obtained by 

 my collector in considerable numbers at Duirat. The interest 

 attached to these specimens is that, while the species is an addition 

 to the fauna of Tunisia, it is only the second time that it 

 has been reported from Barbary. M. Loche had observed a specimen 

 in the flesh, at Blidah, in the hands of a child who had caught it ; 

 but M. Lataste was of the opinion that the species was one of eight 

 included by M. Loche in his list of Mammals of Algeria, all of 

 which would probably be ultimately erased from the list. This 

 however, is included by M. Lataste in his Catalogue along with the 

 other seven. 



Another valuable result of M. Lataste's labours was read before this 

 Society on the 18th November last. I refer to Mr. Boulenger's 

 " Catalogue of the Reptiles and Batrachia of Barbary, based chiefly 

 upon the notes and collections made by M. Lataste in 1880-84." 

 Long before his Catalogue was finally printed off, Mr. Boulenger 

 very kindly gave me the use of a set of proofs to assist me in naming 

 my specimens, and by their aid, and by means of the excellent keys 

 and concise descriptions embodied in the Catalogue, the identification 

 of the specimens was easily accomplished, even in so difficult a genus 

 as Acantliodactylus. 



Moreover, as the specimens, after they had been referred to their 

 respective species, were compared with the representatives of the 

 species in the British Museum, I have every confidence that each 

 has been correctly named. 



Mr. Boulenger's Catalogue enumerates 64 species of Reptiles and 

 10 species of Batrachians, whereas my small collection contains only 

 33 Reptiles and six ecaudate Batrachians, none of the caudate forms 

 having been obtained. Mr. Boulenger has given a most instructive 

 Ust illustrating in tabular form the distribution of the Reptilia and 

 Batrachia of Barbary ; and the only addition these specimens make 

 to it is the extension of the range of Lacerta ocellata^ var. tanrjitana^ 

 to the Tell region of Algeria, in the Province of Oran. 



At Duirat, in Tunisia, a locality where apparently forms distinc- 

 tive of the Tell and of the fauna of the Sahara meet, and which in 

 position seems to bear much the same relation to the Tunisian desert 

 that Biskra has to the Algerian Sahara, my collector obtained one 



^ " Etude de la Faune des VertSbr^s de Barbarie : Catalogue Provisoire des 

 Mammiferes Apelagiques Sauvages," Actes de la Soc. Linn6enne de Bordeaux, 

 t. xxxix. pp. 129-289. And as a separate work, 1885. Catalogue Critique des 

 Mammiferes Apelagiques Sauvages de la Tunisie, 1887. 



