HISTORICAL. 



Two lists of the Batrachia and Reptilia of Ohio have been 

 thus far published. The first was issued in 1838, by Dr. Jared 

 Potter Kirtland ('38), then at the Medical College of Ohio, in 

 Cincinnati. The list embraced a part of the Report of the Zoology 

 of Ohio, arranged by Kirtland and published in the First Annual 

 Report of the Geological Survey of the State of Ohio. The list 

 embraces twenty-seven (27) Reptiles and twenty-one (21) Batra- 

 chians, and brief notes on distribution are added for many of the 

 species. Kirtland collected over a large area and personally 

 examined several of the more important collections in the Eastern 

 States. From such sources he drew the material for his list. 



The second list, the only available one at the present time, 

 was prepared by Dr. W. H. Smith ('82), a resident of Michigan. 

 The work was based on collections and notes furnished by several 

 institutions in Ohio and by some workers in general zoology. 

 Many of the species were included merely because they had been 

 found in neighboring States and were supposed to occur, likewise, 

 in Ohio. The work is useful, however, as a synopsis of the forms 

 that probably occur within the State's limits. 



Aside from these two general lists there are found promis- 

 cuously distributed through scientific literature, notes on our 

 reptilian and batrachian fauna. Thus E. V. Wilcox ('91), pub- 

 lished a series of observations on the Batrachia of the State in 

 the " Otterbein Aegis," issued at Westerville, Ohio. The work 

 was based on the Experiment Station Collection and on personal 

 work in several parts of Ohio. Food-habits, dates and places of 

 the occurrence and descriptive remarks are faithfully recorded. 

 In several cases of uncertainty in identification, the species were 

 referred to Prof. Cope and hence are trustworthy. It is unfor- 

 tunate that the list was not published in a medium of wider circu- 

 lation. Morse ('01, May and June) listed the Batrachians and 

 Reptiles in the Zoological museum of the Ohio State University, 

 which is almost complete for Ohio. 



Such are the works exclusively devoted to the State of Ohio. 

 Lists of species in neighboring States have been published which 



