The following indications will point out the reptiles which, in the present state of science, would offer the greatest interest for the collections of the museum.
North America—Testudo polyphemus or Gopher.
Cistudo Blandingii, Holbrook.
Emys rubridentris, Leconte.
Emys floridaua, id.
Emys mobylensis, Holbrook.
Emys insculpta, Leconte.
Emys aregoniensis, Halbrook.
Emys hyeroglyphiea, Holbrook.
Emys cumberlandensis, id.
Emys conciuna, Leconte.
Emys troostii, Holbrook.
Emysaura serpentina, Dum. Bib. (large ones).
Chlonura temminckii, Holbrook (young and grown).
Trionyx muticus, (large ones).
Trionyx spiniferus, (large ones).
As much as possible some living specimens of each of these kinds, as well as of all the other chelonians; these reptiles, whose flesh is eaten, abound in the markets of the United States.
Rana mugiens or Bull-frog; (living subjects).
All the small kinds of lizards and serpents and all the batraciens urodeles, with persisting gills.
Rattle snakes from the south which differ from those of the north (in alcohol).
We have nothing or almost nothing in reptile from the Californio, Yutacan and Guatemala; boas, the crested basilic and the horrible heloderme, a great lizard with tuberculiform scales, should be sent us.
Antilles.—Cuba nourrishes a prodigious quantity of reptiles which are entirely unknown to us.
The museum possesses only some kinds of this class of vertebres from Jamaïca.
Birds and mammiferes.—The study of zoology in the Museum of natural history is not confined to the observation of the forms of animals, to the description of their organs; it proposes, besides, to examine their habits, their development, their instinct, and to see if they can be of any use. Formerly, nothing could be learnt of these essential objects but by the relations of travellers. Establishments formed at great expense by princes or rich amateurs to collect and take care of rare animals, were rather objects of luxury and curiosity than an object of study. But since we have had a menagerie at the museum, a new career of observation is open to naturalists. There, animals can be followed in all degrees of their developments, and their manner of living can be compared with their organisation, that anatomy discovers after death; positive knowledge, acquired on the so important phenomena of copulation, gestation, birth; the varieties which depend on age distinguished from those which are produced by climate, nourishment, by crossing races, and the difference determined which really exists between species. If these animals are of a nature to render services to domestic economy or agriculture, and if they breed there are the means to raise and domesticate them, and, so, to procure new resources. The Vigogne, the Lama, the Alpaca, the Tapir, the kanguroo, the Casoar and many others, will pershaps one day be very useful.