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Show 1895.] ON REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS FROM ADEIN. 635 6. On a Collection of Reptiles and Batrachians made Colonel Yerbury at Aden and its Neighbourhood. By JOHN ANDERSON, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., F.Z.S. [Eeceived June 18, 1895.] (Plates XXXVI. & XXXVII.) Colonel Yerbury has presented this collection to the British Museum, and I have to express m y indebtedness to Dr. Giinther for having entrusted its description to me, and also to M r . Boulenger for his assistance and advice. It contains examples of 17 species of Lizards, 5 Snakes, and 3 Batrachians. The specimens were collected at the following localities besides Aden itself, viz.: Shaikh Othman, five or six miles inland; the oasis of Lahej, 20 miles from Aden; and Haithalhim, 25 miles distant from the rock. Considering that Aden has been in tbe possession of this country since 1839, it is rather remarkable that w e are only now-beginning to know something about its fauna, and very slow-progress seems to attend the elucidation of its flora 1. The literature bearing on its Reptiles and Batrachia can be summarized in a few words. In Mr. Boulenger's Catalogue of the Lizards in the British Museum, only Pristurus crucifer, Val., and Chamceleon calcarifer, Peters, are recorded with Aden as a locality, and in the first volume of Snakes the only species mentioned from Aden is Zamenis rhodorhachis, Jan. Professor Boettger2, in 1892, recorded the occurrence of Gymnodactylus scaber, Heyden, Hemidactylus coctosi, Dum. & Bibr. = H. fiaviviridis, Eiippell, Scincus hemprichii, Wiegm., Chalddes ocellatus, ForskSl, Zamenis ladacensis, Andr. = R. rhodorhachis, Jan, and Echis carinata, Schneider; and in the following year Herr Matschie3 added six other species, collected by Mr. Oscar Neumann, to those already known, viz.:-Mabuia pulchra, Matschie, = M. brevicollis, Wiegm., Acanthodactylus boskianus, Daud., Philochortus neumanni, Matschie, = Latastia neumanni, Matschie, Lytorhynchus diadema, D. & B., Bufo arabicus, Riipp. (?•= Bufo pentoni, Andr.), and Rana ehrenbergi, Peters, = Rana cyanophlyctis, Schneider. In Colonel Yerbury's collection there are specimens of 11 species of Reptiles new to the fauna of Aden and its neighbourhood, and one Toad. Of the former, three are new to science. I am indebted to Colonel Yerbury for some interesting notes on the occurrence and habits of many of the species. I have indicated his observations by inverted commas. 1 M y brother wrote hie ' Florida Adenensis' so long ago as 1856, and I am informed, on the best authority, that only very trifling additions have been made to it since. 2 Ber. Offenb. Ver. 1892, pp. 61-63. 3 SB. nat. Fr. 1893, pp. 27-31, |