CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE HERPETOLOGY OP IOWA. 
* BY ALEXANDER G. RUTHVEN 
During the summer of 1907, the University of Michigan Museum 
was enabled, through the generosity of Mr. Bryant Walker, to send a 
collector to northwestern Iowa for the purpose of investigating the 
fauna of that region. With the appropriation the writer engaged Mr. 
]\Iax M. Peet to assist him in the work. 
The time spent in the field was from July 1 to September 1, and dur- 
ing this time attention was confined almost exclusively to mammals, 
birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mollusks. Besides the actual collecting 
of specimens, notes w^ere made on the habitat relations of the forms, 
and the stomach contents of the vertebrates were saved in as many in- 
stances as possible. The present paper is the second^ to appear on the 
results of this expedition. 
To Mr. Max M. Peet the museum is under great obligations, for he 
accompanied the expedition with no other recompense than his expenses, 
and was untiring in his efforts to make the trip a successful one. Our 
thanks are also due to Mr. George A. Lincoln, State Game Warden of 
Iowa, who, after ascertaining the nature of our work, generously ex- 
tended to us all of the privileges compatible with the law, and to Dr. 
Leonard Stejneger for comparing our specimens of Eumeces septen- 
trionalis with the type in the U. S. National Museum and for verifying 
our determination of the specimens of Chrysemys cinerea helUi. 
GENERAL ENVIRONIC CONDITIONS IN THE REGION. 
The region explored lies within the adjacent i)arts of Clay and Palo 
Alto counties, Iowa. iMore exactly, collecting was confined to the toAvn- 
ships of Riverton, Sioux, Lake, Freeman, and Logan, Clay county, and 
Lost Island and Highland in Palo Alto county. This area is in the prairie 
region, so-called, but lies near its Avestern boundary, i. e., A\diere it merges 
into the higher and more arid Great Plains.^ 
* University of Michigan Museum. 
muthven, Alexander G., The Faunal Affinities of the Prairie Region of Central 
North America. Amer. Natur., XLIT, pp. 388-393. 
^Compare Harvey, LeRoy H., Floral Succession in the Prairie Grass Formation of 
Southeastern South Dakota. Bot. Gaz., XLVI, p. 81. 
^Calvin, Samuel, Physiography of Iowa. The Iowa State Atlas (1904), pp. 258-259. 
