MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
105 
NOTES ON THE AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES OF CASS 
COUNTY, MICHIGAN. 
CRYSTAL THOMPSON. 
The data set forth in this paper are the result of an expedition sent 
by the University of Michigan Museum to Cass County, Michigan, dur- 
ing the summer of 1910. The party was composed of Miss Frances Dun- 
bar and the writer. The field work extended from July 14 to July 30, 
inclusive, and was supplemented by a week’s work by the writer in May, 
1911. The investigations were undertaken as a part of the general 
biological survey of the state that is being carried on by the Museum 
and the Michigan Geological and Biological Survey. 
Cass County lies in the southwestern part of the lower peninsula of 
Michigan. It is one of the lower tier of counties and is separated from 
Lake Michigan by but one county, Berrien. Its importance biologically 
is due to the proximity of the prairie region to the south and west and 
to the fact that it is one of the few counties in Michigan which lies 
in the Upper Austral faunal zone of Merriam. One might very well 
expect then, to find any prairie forms from Indiana and Illinois that 
extend into the state and the most southern species in the Michigan 
fauna. The topography of the county is characteristically that of a 
glaciated region. The land is for the most part gently rolling with a 
few small areas of more level prairies. There is an abundance of small 
lakes ; these lakes covering approximately twenty square miles. 
Christiann Creek in the southeast portion and Dowagiac Creek in the 
northwest portion with their smaller tributaries serve to carry the drain- 
age into the St. Joseph River. 
The work of the expedition was carried on in the central part of the 
county, about Diamond Lake and the group of lakes known as the Mud 
Lakes of Jefferson and Calvin townships. These regions were selected 
because of the fact that they furnished a variety of surface features, 
and also because it was known that the region was rich in amphibians 
and reptiles. 
Diamond Lake is situated about one-lmlf mile from the village of Cass- 
opolis. It is about two and one-half miles long by one mile wide, with 
an island of about eighty acres in the center. The banks rise gently 
from the waters edge and are covered in places by dense beech and 
maple forests, or by cleared fields. At the southeast end is Turtle Bay, 
a small, rather deep bay, the bottom of which, in contrast to the sandy 
bottom of the rest of the lake, is muck. The banks, instead of rising; 
from the water as gentle slopes, are mere swamps of rushes and willows. 
The chain of three lakes, known as the Mud Lakes, is situated about 
two miles south of Diamond Lake, and is also drained by tributaries of 
Christiann Creek. They cover an area approximately one and one-fourth 
miles long by one-fourth mile broad, and are, as the name implies, mud 
bottom lakes, with deposits of marl in some places. The banks are 
swampy and there is a dense growth of water plants over the bottom. 
The upper and longer lake of the chain is known as Long Lake, another 
below this, and into which a ditch empties is called Ditch Lake, and the 
