iv Preface 
The bibliography, while not complete, will be 
found to contain most of the important works 
dealing with this group of reptiles. 
The author is grateful to Mr. Raymond L. 
Ditmars and to his publishers, Messrs. Doubleday, 
Page & Co., and Messrs. Sturgis & Walton, for 
the use of a number of plates; to the Macmillan 
Company and to the United States Bureau of 
Fish and Fisheries for the same privilege; to the 
National Museum for photographs of the skull of 
the gavial; and to the Smithsonian Institution for 
the use of the plates from researches published by 
them and included herein. 
Proper acknowledgment is made, under each 
borrowed figure, to the author from whom it is 
taken. 
Morcantown, W. Va. 
May 1, 1915. 
