An Annotated Catalogue 



of the Amphibians and Reptiles 



of Bexar County, Texas 



By 



JOHN K. STRECKER 



Curator of Museum, Baylor University 

 WACO, TEXAS 



The present catalogue, compiled at the suggestion of Mr. 

 Edward W. Heusinger, is the first attempt to form a complete 

 list of the amphibians and reptiles of Bexar County, South- 

 western Texas. Mr. H. P. Attwater's list of Bexar County 

 birds (Auk, IX, 1893, pp. 220-238 and 337-345) and Mr. J. A. 

 Allen's report on Mr. Attwater's mammal collection (Bull. Am. 

 Mus. Nat. Hist., VIII, 1896, pp. 47-80) have given biologists an 

 accurate knowledge of the avian and mammalian fauna of the 

 county, but up to the present the amphibian and reptile records 

 have been scattered through the literature and but few workers 

 have been in a position properly to appreciate the richness of 

 its herpetology. Prof. E. D. Cope's essay "On the Zoological 

 Position of Texas" (Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 17, 1880) con- 

 tains the most complete list that has heretofore been published 

 but his paper is rare and the nomenclature now very much out 

 of date. 



The compiler of the present list has frequently visited 

 the county and collected its animals and it is only to this ex- 

 tent that he is claiming any credit, for practically all of the 

 species collected by him have also been obtained by others. 

 However, a superficial knowledge of a region is better than no 

 first-hand knowledge at all, and the fact that he has visited San 

 Antonio and the region about Helotes Creek may possibly pre- 

 vent some mistakes in specific localities. The herpetological 

 work in Bexar County has been well done, the collected speci- 

 mens are still extant and nothing remains but to gather the 

 scattered references into one connected list and add a few words 

 of credit to those, who after doing their mite to add to our 

 knowledge concerning the habits of the animals recorded, have 

 passed along. 



The region about San Antonio has changed wonderfully 

 since the days of the early United States Government expeditions, 

 when Colonel Graham, Major Emory, John H. Clark, Doctors 



