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REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS The physical features of a country determine to a great extent the distribution of its fauna, and the county of Bedford may roughly be divided into two zones so far as the reptiles and batrachians are concerned. There is first the low land, frequently flooded, lying around the river Ouse which affords food and shelter to the moisture loving reptiles and batrachians ; secondly, the belt of warm greensand which, entering the county at Leighton Buzzard, passes by Woburn, Ampthill and Sandy, and out of the county beyond Potton. This stretch of country, undulating in many places and covered with woods and bracken, forms a secure retreat for those reptiles which love warmth, and it is in these two belts of land that most of the reptiles and batrachians of the county are found. The northern portion of Bedfordshire with its cold clay soil, and the southern portion with its chalk, downs, are not favourable to reptilian and batrachian life. Although the orders Lacertilia and Ophidia, and the class Batrachia, are represented, the county cannot be considered rich in species. I have not been able to find the smallest of our newts, known as the palmated newt (Mo/ge palmata), although I have sought for it far and wide, and Mr. Steele-Elliott agrees with me in thinking that it cannot be reckoned among our local fauna. He informs me that he has searched every likely looking clay pit, well, village pond, and other such waters without finding a trace of it. The edible, or green frog as it is sometimes called {Rana escu/enta), is not met with outside the Woburn Park estate. Some years ago a number of these batrachians were imported from the continent by the Duke of Bedford and let loose in the gardens at Woburn Abbey, and the colony still continues to exist. The natterjack toad {Bufo calamitd) is also absent. This is rather curious because it exists on the borders of the counties of Cambridge and Hertford. There is no record of the smooth snake (Coronella /avis) ever having been seen, and I think that it may be safely asserted that it does not exist in the county. Probably the same assertion may be made of the sand lizard (Lacerta agilis). It has been sought for diligently in the localities that would be likely to harbour it, and without success, but I have cap- tured it at Perry in Huntingdonshire, only a mile or two over the border. Owing to the high state of cultivation the number of individuals of existing species of reptiles is not great, and the number is each year get- ting less, the lizards and snakes being killed whenever they are met with. It is earnestly to be hoped that the spread of education will do something towards removing that foolish prejudice against creeping things which so 102