The Reptile House was the first large building erected in the Zoological Park. It represents an earnest effort to present carefully selected examples of the reptilian Orders, in a manner which may afford the visitor and the student a general view of the important groups of living reptiles.

The length of the Reptile House, over all, is 146 feet, and its greatest width is 100 feet. It is constructed of buff mottled brick, combined with granite and Indiana limestone. In the ornamental cornice of terra cotta, reptilian forms modelled by Mr. A. Phimister Proctor, the well-known animal sculptor, constitute an important feature. The building is roofed with slate, heated by hot water, and cost, with its cages, about $50,000. It is beautifully situated on the edge of a forest of primeval oaks, very near the geographical center of the Park.

The great center hall is unbroken by a single column, and at one end it opens across the Crocodile Pool and its sandbanks, through three huge arches, into the green, jungly mass of the conservatory. Of the tropical vegetation massed behind the pool—palmettoes, bayonet cacti, yuccas, and the like, and the tillandsias, Spanish moss, resurrection ferns, and butterfly orchids,—nearly the whole came from Florida, along with five alligators which were the first occupants of the pool.

In effect, the central hall appears to be 115 feet in length, by 40 feet wide, exclusive of the cages. But, large as this building is, it would be an easy matter to fill all its available space with the reptiles of North America alone, choosing only the handsome and showy forms. As we contemplate the great number of species in our own reptilian fauna, the thought occurs, what can we do with the reptiles of the Old World? Manifestly, the only proper course is to choose from the reptiles of the world the forms which will make for our visitors and students the most instructive and attractive series of important types.

SYNOPSIS OF THE CLASS REPTILIA.

On April 1, 1913, all these examples are on exhibition in the Reptile House:

ORDERS. CONSPICUOUS EXAMPLES. LOCALITY.
LIVING REPTILES.
Turtles, or Chelonia.
Aligator Turtle Louisiana.
Snapping Turtle Zoological Park.
Box Turtle Zoological Park.
Giant Tortoise Galapagos Island.
Gopher Tortoise Florida.
Painted Turtle New York.
Green Turtle (marine) New York.
Soft-shelled Turtle Indiana.
Saurians, or Crocodilia.
Alligator Florida.
Florida Crocodile Southern Florida.
Broad-nosed Crocodile Africa.
Lizards, or Lacertilia.
Iguana (I. tuberculata) West Indies.
Horned “Toad” Arizona.
Green Lizard (L. viridis) Europe.
Monitor Ceylon.
“Glass Snake” Florida.
Gila Monster Arizona.
Chameleon Africa.
Serpents, or Ophidia.
Harmless.
Regal Python Malay Peninsula.
Anaconda British Guiana.
Black Snake (B. constrictor) Zoological Garden.
Garter Snake Zoological Park.
Hog-Nosed Snake Zoological Park.
Venomous.
Coral Snake Florida.
Cobra de Capello India.
Diamond-Backed Rattlesnake Florida.
Water Moccasin Florida.

THE TURTLES AND TORTOISES.

The Order of Turtles, (Chelonia), is so large that it has been found necessary to devote to its representatives the whole central space of the main hall of the Reptile House, and also a specially designed Tortoise House of glass in the eastern end of the building. In the main hall are two features—one, a large square tank for large turtles; the other, a pool of running water between banks of earth, sand, and living plants. This tank is 35 feet in length, and by means of low, plate-glass partitions it is divided into ten cross sections, each of which can very comfortably provide for the wants of at least three species of turtles of medium size. With a wonderfully rich Chelonian fauna on the western continent to provide for, there is little room to spare for Old World forms, and the temptation to make this collection strictly Occidental, is almost too great to be resisted. For the sake of brevity and clearness, only six types have been chosen for special mention.