In a memoir on the Reptiles and Batrachians of the Solomon Islands, which was read before the Zoological Society, on May 6th, 1884,[439] Mr. Boulenger remarked that very little was known about the herpetology of these islands until two important collections, which I sent to the British Museum in 1883 and 1884, brought to light several new and interesting forms, such as could hardly have been expected from this region. “The position of this group of islands on the limits of two great zoological districts,”—this author proceeded to observe—“renders the study of its fauna of special interest, as it is the point where many of the Papuasian and Polynesian forms intermingle. Curiously, all the Batrachians belong to species not hitherto found elsewhere, and one of them is even so strongly modified as to be the type of a distinct family.”

[439] Published in the Transactions of the Society; vol. xii., part i., 1886. The diagnoses of most of the new species in my collections were given in the Proceedings for 1884: p. 210. Vide also “Annals and Magazine of Natural History” (5) xii., 1883.

According to Mr. Boulenger, the Reptiles may be grouped under four headings, viz.:—

1. Species belonging to both the Papuasian and Polynesian districts.

2. Indo-Malayan or Papuasian species, not extending further east or south-east.

3. Polynesian species, not extending further north and west than New Ireland.

4. Species not hitherto found elsewhere than in the Solomons (and New Ireland.)

1