THE BATRACHIANS OF THE VICINITY OF NEW YORK CITY. 



By Raymond L. Ditmars, 

 Curator of Reptiles, New York Zoological Park. 



With Illustrations from Photographs Taken from Life 



By Herbert Lang, 



American Museum of Natural History. 



Introduction. 



^^^^^OLLOWING the reptiles in zoological classification 

 '■""■*■'""" come the batrachians, creatures which may be 

 said to constitute a connecting link between the 

 reptiles and the fishes. Unlike the former, the 

 great majority of batrachians begin life as strictly 

 aquatic, fish-like forms, provided with gills, which with many 

 species are elaborately developed in the shape of external, 

 fringed processes. From this aquatic form, with gills (the tad- 

 pole or larval stage), the average batrachian ultimately matures 

 into a creature constituted to breathe atmospheric air. 



Swamps and bogs and the borders of streams and ponds are 

 usually the homes of the batrachians, which thrive in such damp 

 situations. Some species, like the toad, are quite terrestrial, and 

 many are subterraneous, but with few exceptions they frequent 

 the immediate vicinity of water or damp and shaded places. 

 There are species that remain aquatic throughout life, like the 

 Mud Puppy (Ncctiirits) and the Hellbender {Cryptobrandiiis), 

 both North American species. In the Old World is found the 

 Proteus, a blind and translucent species, that passes its entire 

 existence in underground rivers or in the dark lakes of European 

 caverns. 



1 Reprinted from The American Museum Journal, Vol. V, pp. 161-206, 

 Oct., I go;. 



[7] 161 



