INTRODUCTORY. 



IT is only too often tiiat one, not a specialist in some line of 

 scientific work asks bread of those who have devoted them- 

 selves more especially to that department of science and 

 receives but a stone. There are at present niany general and 

 local works on the subject of the animals and plants about us, 

 but few are adapted to the uon-specialist and fewer still to the 

 layman. To read the majority of these works it is necessary to 

 become conversant, often to quite a degree, with the nomenclature 

 and technicaliti^ used. This, to say the least, is burdensome to 

 a general reader and often results in annulling anyintferest he 

 may have had in the subject. ' ■ 



The present paper is an attempt to put in a form comprehen- 

 sible to general readers an account of the reptiles and bafrachians 

 of the State. If the paper is too technical to be used- by any 

 intelligent person it fails of its purpose. It is, however, impos- 

 sible to discuss a subject such as this without the use of any 

 uncommon terms ; the very fact that the two groups under con- 

 sideration are themselves generally unfamiliar is a confirmation 

 of this statement. But the attempt has been made in the present 

 paper to reduce such terms to a minimum and to fully explain 

 thc«e that must be used. 



