MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
•215 
RESULTS OF THE 
SH IRAS EXPEDITIONS 
POINT, MICHIGAN. 
TO WHITEFJSH 
REPTILES AND AMPIIiniANS, 
Crystal Thompson and Helen Thompson. 
Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan. 
During the summer of 1912, the Museum of Zoology was enabled, 
through the generosity of Hon. George Shiras 3d., to send Mr. N. A. 
Wood, Curator of Birds, to Wliitefisli Point, Chippewa County, Michi- 
gan, for the purpose of beginning a biological exploration of the region. 
Principal attention was given by Mr. Wood to the birds and mammals, 
but the amphibians and reptiles were studied in considerable detail, and 
a collection of seventy-nine specimens with detailed data was secured. 
We are indebted to Mr. Wood for the use of his notes, some of which are 
incorporated in this report. 
A general account of the topography, climate and habitats of the 
region will be sufficient. The point is considered to extend from a line 
drawn from the Luce-Chippewa County line at Lake Superior to the 
Shelldrake River and down this river to its mouth. Generally speaking, 
it is made up of sandy ridges running parallel with the shore line; and 
these ridges are more or less forested and are separated by wooded or 
grassy marshes, and ponds of varying extent. The vegetation of the 
ridges varies from an open jack pine forest near the end of the point 
to a dense birch-pine forest on the older ridges near the base; and in 
the older areas there are balsam-spruce forests and tamarack and cedar 
bogs in the low places. Small, swiftly-flowing streams usually connect 
the ponds with Lake Superior; and the Shelldrake River, a stream that 
varies from a width of about ten to fifteen feet near Vermilion to about 
one hundred feet at the mouth, is included in the region. It will be 
seen from this brief description and the latitude that the region is not 
a favorable one for the existence of reptiles and amphibians, and the 
thirteen species obtained are probably very nearly all that live in the 
region. 
The data on the reptile-amphibian fauna of the Wliitefisli Point region 
is of interest for several reasons. Practically nothing has been known 
of the distribution of the two groups in (lie eastern half of the Upper 
Peninsula, and, while the territory worked was very restricted, (he eco- 
logical conditions are so varied that the fauna is probably representative 
of much of the general region. There is in the general fauna of the 
western part of the northern peninsula a decided western element, but 
little is known of the eastern limit of these forms. So far the only known 
western form in these groups is Chri/seiups belli i . the known range of 
which is now extended entirely across northern Michigan. It is also 
of interest to know whether any of (lie more southern forms that are 
known to exist in the northern part of the southern peninsula occur 
in this region. The work on Wliitefisli Point has added Xatrix sipedon 
