ANNOTATED LIST OF THE REPTILES AND BATRACIIIANS COLLECTED BY THE 

 DEATH VALLEY EXPEDITION IN 1891, WITH DESCRIPTIONS OE NEW SPECIES. 



By Leonhard Stejneger, 



Curator of the Department of Reptiles and Batrachians, V. S. National Museum. 



With field notes by Dr. C. Hart Merriam. 



Since the days of the great western surveying expeditions, the 

 United States Exploring Expedition (Wilkes'), the United States and 

 Mexican Boundary Survey, the various Pacific Bailroad surveys, and 

 Wheeler's Survey West of the one-hundredth Meridian, no collection of 

 North American reptiles and batrachians has been made equaling or 

 even approaching that brought home by the Death Valley Expedition. 

 In the extent of the series of many species it stands unrivaled, and in 

 the accuracy and detail of its labeling it surpasses them all. To this 

 point particularly it is desired to call attention. Many of the speci- 

 mens of the older collection have the localities very vaguely indicated, 

 as 'California;' 'From San Diego to El Paso;' in others, detailed locali- 

 ties are given, but in such a way that in many cases it is impossible 

 to identify them; in others, the labels have been changed, and errors 

 resulted; others again were never labeled, or the labels were lost. In 

 the collection of the Death Valley Expedition all the nine hundred 

 specimens are individually and fully labeled; altitudes are frequently 

 given, and there is not the slightest doubt as to the correctness of the 

 statement attached to each and every specimen. 



Furthermore, the collection is particularly noteworthy as it is the 

 first attempt in this country on a similar scale to gather the herpeto- 

 logical material together according to a rational plan and with a defi- 

 nite purpose in view. The result is a fine series of specimens, unique 

 in its completeness with respect to geograp hie localities within the area 

 explored by the expedition, a tract of almost 100,000 square miles, com- 

 prising a number of nearly parallel desert valleys separated by in- 

 tervening barren mountain ranges. The effort of the expedition to 

 collect every species in all the characteristic localities from California 

 to Utah and Arizona resulted in a material by which it has been pos- 

 sible in many instances to follow the geographic variation in its various 



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