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Show 1892.J AND BATRACHIANS FROM BARBARV. 5 great degree, why the collection of reptiles made by me is so comparatively meagre. M. Lataste, the most recent and successful investigator of the Vertebrate fauna of Barbary, has recorded his observations on the Mammalia inhabiting that region in two works1. He has been able, by his collections and extensive researches in the country and by the labours of other naturalists, to bring up the number of Mammalian species inhabiting Barbary to 84. Among the eleven species of small Mammalia found by me the only one calling for special remark is Plecotus auritus, obtained by my collector in considerable numbers at Duirat. The interest attached to these specimens is that, while the species is an addition to the fauna of Tunisia, it is only the second time that it has been reported from Barbary. M. Loche had observed a specimen in the flesh, at Blidah, in the hands of a child who had caught it ; but M . Lataste was of the opinion that the species was one of eight included by M . Loche in his list of Mammals of Algeria, all of which would probably be ultimately erased from the list. This however, is included by M . Lataste in his Catalogue along with the other seven. Another valuable result of M . Lataste's labours was read before this Society on the 18th November last. I refer to Mr. Boulenger's " Catalogue of the Reptiles and Batrachia of Barbary, based chiefly upon the notes and collections made by M. Lataste in 1880-84." Long before his Catalogue was finally printed off, Mr. Boulenger very kindly gave me the use of a set of proofs to assist me in naming m y specimens, and by their aid, and by means of the excellent keys and concise descriptions embodied in the Catalogue, the identification of the specimens was easily accomplished, even in so difficult a genus as Acanthodactylus. Moreover, as the specimens, after they had been referred to their respective species, were compared with the representatives of the species in the British Museum, I have every confidence that each has been correctly named. Mr. Boulenger's Catalogue enumerates 64 species of Reptiles and 10 species of Batrachians, whereas m y small collection contains only 33 Reptiles and six ecaudate Batrachians, none of the caudate forms having been obtained. Mr. Boulenger has given a most instructive list illustrating in tabular form the distribution of the Reptilia and Batrachia of Barbary; and the only addition these specimens make to it is the extension of the range of Lacerta ocellata, var. tangitana, to the Tell region of Algeria, in the Province of Oran. At Duirat, in Tunisia, a locality where apparently forms distinctive of the Tell and of the fauna of the Sahara meet, and which in position seems to bear much the same relation to the Tunisian desert that Biskra has to the Algerian Sahara, m y collector obtained one 1 " Etude de la Faune des Vertebres de Barbarie: Catalogue Provisoire des Mammiferes Apelagiques Sauvages," Actes de la Soc. Linneenne de Bordeaux, t. xxxix. pp. 129-289. And as a separate work, 1885. Catalogue Critique des Mammiferes Apelagique3 Sauvages de la Tunisie, 1887. |