58 BARBOUR: ZOOGEOGRAPHY. 



common in this region also occur, E. carinatus (Schneider) and E. asper (Giin- 

 ther). Both species of Natrix, N. hypomelas (Gunther) and N. dahli (Werner), 

 are pecuhar to the Bismarck group. One Stegonotus, S. heterurus Blgr., occurs 

 here only, and along with it the more wide-ranging S. modestus (Schlegel). 

 Two species of Dendrophis occur: — D. lineolatus Hombr. and Jacq. and D. calli- 

 gaster Gunther, both wide-ranging. The only other two land species are both 

 well known throughout the whole area. They are Boiga irregularis (Bechs.) 

 and the more strictly Papuan Pseudelaps muelleri (Schlegel). 



Thus it will be seen that the reptiles, while obviously most closely related 

 to those of New Guinea, show hardly any relationship with those of Australia, 

 only one land proteroglyph occurring, so far as is known; while all the 

 other genera are originally derived from the Asiatic mainland through New 

 Guinea. 



Only five amphibians occur. They are Rana novae-hritanniae Werner, which 

 has been mentioned before as supposedly having the impossible distribution of 

 Sumatra and New Britain; Cornufer houlengeri Boettger, a pecuhar species; the 

 Papuan C. corrugatus (A. Dum.), a supposedly local variety of Hyla dolichopsis 

 (Cope) ; and a so-called Hylella brachypus (Werner) . I agree with van Kampen 

 in considering the absence of vomerine teeth an insufficient distinction in itself 

 to separate the two genera Hyla and Hylella; while the subspecies of Hyla 

 dolichopsis (Cope) does not seem to be very satisfactory. I fail to find the 

 characters which have been assigned as distinctive of the Ternatian subspecies 

 tenuigranulata Boettger as actually serving to distinguish this from the variable 

 individuals on the mainland of New Guinea; and I believe that the same con- 

 dition obtains here regarding the subspecies pollicaris. 



I have not mentioned Crocodilus porosus Schneider, because it is so wide- 

 ranging as hardly to deserve constant repetition. It is important also to point 

 out the fact- that the remarkable development of amphibians in the Solomon 

 Islands finds no parallel among these islands; another point of still greater 

 import is the fact that the two genera, Enygrus and Stegonotus, have peculiar 

 species differentiated in the Bismarck Archipelago, which have been derived of 

 course from Papua; while the same genera occurring in the Moluccas have true 

 Papuan species over most of the islands, except in the case of Stegonotus hatjanen- 

 sis (Giinther), localized in the Halmahera group; while upon Ceram, for instance, 

 two unmodified Papuan species occur. The fauna, of course, is a small one in 

 point of number of genera, so that it is impossible to point out this condition of 

 affairs in more than a few types. It would suggest strongly that the separation 



