4. REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS. 



By G. A. BOULENGER, F.R.S. 



General Sketch. 



In 1845 the Lizards in the Museum were arranged and 

 catalogued by Dr. J. E. Gray, the material he had to deal with 

 consisting of 428 specimens representing 152 species. Later 

 accessions were named and described by Dr. Gunther and 

 Mr. O'Shaughnessy. During the years 1882-1886 Mr. Boulenger 

 revised this group, and prepared a catalogue, in three volumes, 

 published in 1885-1887. The number of species recognised by 

 him as valid was 1616, of which 1206 were represented in the 

 British Museum by 9820 specimens. The Snakes in the Museum 

 were originally arranged and catalogued partly by Dr. J. E. Gray 

 in 1849, partly by Dr. Gunther in 1858, these catalogues 

 enumerating 3630 specimens as belonging to 486 species. During 

 the years 1889-1895 this group was revised and rearranged by 

 Mr. Boulenger, the catalogue being issued in three volumes 

 (1893-1896). The collection contained, at the completion of 

 this work, 11,092 specimens representing 1327 species of this 

 order. The Chelonians and Crocodiles were catalogued by 

 Dr. J. E. Gray in 1844, and again during 1855-1872, whilst 

 in 1873 a "Hand-list" of these Reptiles was issued by him, 

 which gave the number of specimens of Chelonians as 1371 

 and of Crocodiles as 304. In 1888 Mr. Boulenger had completed 

 a revision of these orders, and in his catalogue (published 1889) 

 enumerated 1665 specimens of Chelonians, representing 176 

 species, and 236 Crocodiles belonging to 18 species, the re- 

 duction in number in this latter group being due to the 

 elimination of useless specimens. In 1858 a catalogue of the 

 Batrachia Salientia in the Museum was issued, Dr. Gunther 

 being the author, in which 1691 specimens were enumerated as 

 belonging to 214 species. Mr. Boulenger had completed a 

 revision and re-arrangement of this group in 1882, when a 

 second edition of the catalogue was published, in which 4692 

 specimens were referred to 522 species; whilst in 1898 these 

 numbers had increased to about 9500 and 850 respectively. 

 The Batrachia Caudata and Apoda were first catalogued by 



