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ON THE HERPETOLOGY OF THE GRAND DUCHY 



OF BADEN. 



By G. Norman Douglass. 



This part of Germany is now quite familiar to Englishmen , 

 and it will suffice, for the purpose of these introductory remarks, 

 briefly to glance over its physical features, to the influence of which 

 its exceptional variety of organic life is in great measure due. 

 The Black Forest, forming the back -bone of the country, com- 

 prises — within a limited area — considerable diversity of aspect ; 

 thus the Southern and Western Slopes, skirting the Rhine valley, 

 are reckoned amongst the warmest parts of Germany, while, as 

 we ascend its inclines, we find ourselves in districts of an almost 

 Alpine character or on exposed table -lands, such as that consti- 

 tuting the watershed of the Danube and the rivers flowing 

 westwards. 



The surface of this region is similarly more diversified than 

 its name might lead us to suppose, and the extensive fir forests, 

 relieved here and there by rocky eminences or stretches of moor- 

 land and lakes, and intersected by numberless rivulets, are most 

 productive in variety of specific forms. This circumstance strikes 

 the observer more readily than their actual individual abundance, 

 and can be explained by the fact that many strictly lowland 

 forms, following up the sheltered valleys, are found in surround- 

 ings no longer adapted to their habits and occupied already by 

 other, often allied or representative, species. 



The more monotonous Rhine valley contrasts unfavourably 

 in point of natural scenery with the mountainous tracts, though 

 this portion of the country equally is not devoid of attractions 

 for the naturalist, as it supports some highly interesting types of 

 animal life. An almost continuous and luxuriant growth of 

 wood, interspersed by small sheets of water in connection with 

 the Rhine, covers the humid soil on both banks of that river, 

 and it is much to be regretted that both here, as elsewhere, the 

 relentless advance of civilization, under various disguises, has 

 perceptibly reduced the numbers of several species, and threatens 

 eventually to exterminate entire orders. 



Between the above-mentioned belt of vegetation and the 

 Schwarzwald proper, its northern less elevated prolongations, 



