3 6 ° 
The Ohio Naturalist. 
[Vol. Ill, No. 3 , 
OHIO REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS.* 
Max Morse. 
The group of reptiles and batraehians offers a striking example 
of a ease where “a little learning is a dangerous thing.” Xo 
dependence can be placed in the records of the casual observer — 
not that he is always -willfully erroneous, but there are so many 
ways in which one can make mistakes in identification of these 
forms that he, only, is to be trusted to a degree of certainty who 
has given some attention to the technicalities of the subject. The 
ordinary observer groups all snakes into either poisonous or non- 
poisonous, and to the latter he gives the name of nuisances, never 
thinking that this group of non-poisonous reptiles can be divided 
into beneficial and non-beneficial. To the farmer, who, of all 
of us comes into closest contact with the reptiles and batraehians, 
a knowledge of their good or evil is an important thing. To my 
mind, the economical importance of these two groups is not to be 
ranked below that of birds. 
For such reasons, I consider that a systematic survey of the 
reptiles and batraehians of the State should be made. In other 
States this need is being recognized, and in New York, Edwin C. 
Eckel, late of the University of the State of New York, has pub- 
lished an excellent State list, which places the knowledge of these 
forms on a par with that of birds. In Ohio the fishes are already 
in most excellent condition, and soon the birds will be likewise. 
The remaining three groups — batraehians, reptiles and mammals 
— are still to be worked up. 
The first attempt at a State list was that of Dr Jarred Potter 
Kirtland, in the First Geological Survey of the State, published 
in 1833. In it he includes twenty-seven species of reptiles and 
twenty-one of batraehians. In the introduction he makes the 
remark that ‘ ' no important additions to the class of reptiles can 
be made.” No list was published after this one of Dr. Kirtland’ s 
until 1879, when Dr. Smith, of Ann Arbor, Mich., gave the list 
in the fourth volume of the Survey under Dr. Newberry. In 
this list he enumerates thirty-seven species and sub-species of 
reptiles and twenty-five of batraehians — this making an addition 
of ten species of reptiles and four batraehians to Dr. Kirtland’s 
list. This list — the last general list for the State - was written by 
a man who had to obtain his information from the list of Dr. 
Kirtland and what reports were furnished him by residents of 
Ohio. No exact records are given as to the occurrence and 
distribution of the forms except in a few cases. 
Mr. E. V. Wilcox, then assistant in the Ohio Experimental 
Station, published a list of the batrachia of Ohio in the Ottcrbein 
Read before the Ohio State Academy of Science, Nov . 5902. Columbus, O. 
