DESCEIPTIYE CATALOGUE 
OF 
North American Batrachia and Reptilia, 
POUND EAST OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 
BY 
N. S. DAVIS, Jr., and FRANK L. RICE. 
The students of general herpetology in this country have 
labored under great disadvantage, as the descriptions of American 
Batrachia and Reptilia are scattered through many works, which 
are rarely found except in large scientific libraries. In the fol- 
lowing pages an attempt is made to describe, in convenient form, 
the species found in Eastern North America, and the higher 
groups to which they belong. The nomenclature and classifica- 
tion used are the same as that adopted by Prof. E. D. Cope in 
his Check List of North American Batrachia and Reptilia. 
(Bull, of XL S. Nat. Mus., No. 1.) In order to facilitate the iden- 
tification of specimens, and in order that the catalogue may be 
available to the greatest number, when easily recognizable char- 
acters did not exist in the natural synopses, they were added in 
artificial ones. 
The works of the following authors have been especially 
useful in preparing the present paper: E. D. Cope, Baird, 
Girard, Agassiz, Holbrook, Huxley, Dumeril, Bibron, Gray’s 
and Gunther’s British Museum Catalogues, also the reports of 
the government exploring expeditions, the volumes of the Pro- 
ceedings of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, etc. 
Many of the synopses have been compiled from the numer- 
ous exhaustive articles by Prof. Cope, several of which have 
been copied in part almost verbatim. The compilers are much 
