Excerpt from Check List of North American Reptilia and Batrachia: With Catalogue of Specimens in U. S. National Museum This work (bulletin No. 24) is the thirtieth of a series of papers intended to illustrate the collections of natural history and ethnology belonging to the United States, and constituting the National Museum, of which the Smithsonian Institution was placed in charge by the act of Congress of August 10, 1846. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

"The present contribution to North American Herpetology is a prodromus of a general work on that subject, undertaken some years ago at the request of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. The material which has been accumulating in the museum of that Institution has offered great advantages for the investigation of the questions of anatomical structure, variations of specific characters, and geographical distribution. It is believed that these subjects are much elucidated by the study of the Batrachia and Reptilia, since these animals are especially susceptible to physical influences; also, they are unable, like birds, and generally not disposed, as are mammals, to make extended migrations, their habitats express nearly the simplest relations of life to its surroundings."--Page 3.