n. 



The Reptiles. 



Though collections of reptiles have at several times been made on the Bahamas, 

 the herpetological fauna of these islands is still insufficiently known. The reason- 

 is, that the collections have been made during a very short time, and that some of 

 the islands have been explored comparatively well, some hardly at all. No zoologist 

 has visited all the islands in order to study the reptiles. One of the most inter- 

 esting collections was made by the West Indian Expedition of the Pennsylvania 

 University, 1890—1891, which visited among the Bahamas the following islands: 

 New Providence, Eleuthera, Watlings, Crooked Island and Great Inagua. Mr. J. P. 

 Moore, who was in charge as zoologist of the expedition collected the reptiles and 

 has given several valuable field-notes about them, which have been published by 

 Cope, who has described the collections (11). Reptiles were also collected by the 

 Bahama Expedition of the Baltimore Geographical Society (1903) at several of the 

 islands. They were described by Stejneger, who has given an excellent account 

 of the reptilefauna of the archipelago, as it was known at that time (17, 18). Bar- 

 bour paid a month's visit to New Providence, Great Abaco and Grand Bahama in 

 1904, collecting several reptiles in these places, wdiich he has described, together 

 with some other collections, made by other American naturalists on these and some 

 other islands of the Bahamas (1, 2). G arman has described the reptiles from the 

 Bahamas in the Museum of Comp. Zoology at Cambridge (Mass.), most of them 

 collected by C. J. Maynard on Inagua, Rum Key and Andros, but also by other 

 persons (12 — 15). The collections in the U. S. Nat. Mus. were descriced by Cope (10). 



During my stay in the Bahamas I collected a great number of reptiles and 

 had plenty of opportunities to study the reptiles in a living state, especially their 

 coloration and its changes. In publishing the results of these studies, I am also 

 giving a summary account of tlie present knowledge of the reptile fauna of the 

 whole archipelago, its composition and origin. 



