156 
FOURTEENTH REPORT. 
RESULTS OF 
T1IE MEESFIOX EXPEDITION 
ISLANDS, LAKE HURON. 
TO THE CHARITY 
THE AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES OF CHARITY ISLAND. 1 
BY CRYSTAL THOMPSON AND HELEN THOMPSON. 
This paper is based on the collections made by the various members of 
the Merslion Expedition of the University of Michigan Museum to the 
Charity Islands. 2 During the summer of 1910, six men were in 
the field, each of whom devoted his time to a particular group. In 
191.1 Mr. Wood again spent a few weeks on the island, Dr. Ruthven 
was there for a few days, and the writers were sent over in August 
to take photographs of the habitats and secure what data they could. 
Several papers have already been published 3 on the results of the ex- 
pedition and others will follow. 
The Charity Islands are a group of three small islands situated near 
the mouth of Saginaw Ray. The largest. Charity Island proper, on 
which the amphibians and reptiles were studied, contains about 650 
acres of rock and sand, is owned by the United States Government, 
and is used as a light house station. Cutting of vegetation, hunting, 
and fishing within a mile of its shores are not permitted, so the condi- 
tions are decidedly primitive. The island is covered with a natural 
forest of oak, maple and pine, there is a shallow pond comprising sev- 
eral acres on the west side, and the beaches are mostly low and sandy, 
with an occasional projecting point of bare rock. 
Little Charity, containing about 3 acres, is used as a fishing station, 
and Gull Island, the smallest of the three, is merely a low projecting 
reef, about a quarter of an acre in extent, that is generally not indicated 
on the maps. The group is somewhat nearer the west coast than the 
east. Charity Island is six and seven -eighths miles southeast of Point 
Lookout, nine and seven-eighths miles northwest of Caseville and nine 
miles northwest of Oak Point. 
The islands are of especial interest biologically in that they have not 
been connected with the mainland since glacial times. The presence 
of resident birds is of course easily explained, and the few mammals 
probably cross on the ice during the winter. There are two possible 
ways in which the salamanders may have reached the island. The young 
in the aquatic stage or the adults during the breeding season may have 
crossed by water; or, and this seems to be the more plausible explana- 
tion, the adults may have drifted over in decaying logs. The latter 
explanation may also account for the presence of the fox snakes, milk 
snakes, garter snakes and green snakes, and the toad and perhaps 
'From the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. 
2 The writers are also indebted to Dr. A. G. Ruthven for his notes on the reptiles and amphibians 
of Charitv Island. 
''Ruthven, Alexander G., Science, N. S., XXXIII, pp. 208-209. Wood, N. A.. Wilson Bulletin, 
XXIII pp. 78-112. Wood, N. A., Thirteenth Ann. Rept., Mich. Acad. Sci., pp. 131-134. Dodge, C. 
K ibid. . pp. 173-190. Andrews, A. W., ibid., pp. 168-170. 
