A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of the United States and Canada East of the 100th Meridian

This is No. 12 in the well-known Peterson Field Guide Series. Accordingly, it needs little introduction to anyone who is familiar with preceding field guides of this series such as those to birds, butterflies, animal tracks, etc. This book is somewhat more than a field guide for identifying reptiles and amphibians. author states that nine times out of ten the reader will have his specimen at hand before he attempts identification and we might add that many times the reader will desire to keep his catch at least for short periods of time once identification has been effected. Conant has wisely included information of interest to the professional and layman alike on the care and handling of reptiles and amphibians both in the field and in captivity. first four chapters (28 pages) are entitled Introduction, Making and Transporting the Catch, Care in Captivity, About the Snake-Bite Each is well-written and the latter three are illustrated with full page photographs showing techniques for handling reptiles (poisonous and non-poisonous) and amphibians. Drawings of tools for catching and transporting, as well as illustrations of living quarters for small captive specimens are included. author gives a classic retort to his question What About the Snake-Bite Problem? in the lead sentence to this chapter: The best answer is not to get bitten. This answer is supported by the fact that most people are bitten through carelessness. A full page plate illustrates first aid for poisonous snake bite. Each species or subspecies is treated under the following headings in the text: Identification. Similar Species, Voice (when pertinent), and Range. This book contains the finest color plates (24 full pages) of reptiles and amphibians ever assembled under one cover for $3.95 and the illustrator, Isabelle Hunt Conant, is to be highly commended for her outstanding achievement in reproducing color from live animals. Unfortunately in some cases the diagnostic value of the indicating lines of the Peterson Series has been lost in reduction. Most readers would probably have difficulty in identifying the Texas Map Turtle, Graptemys versa, from Plate 8 even though advised to examine closely for the horizontal or J-shaped line behind eye. animals depicted in any one plate are all headed in more or less the same direction, the attainment of which must have been a constant exercise in patience for author and illustrator. hellbenders (Plate 35) and the narrow mouth toads (Plate 39) provide two of several refreshing exceptions which are not in the least considered adversely by this reviewer. A notable handicap to anyone interested in the information that the scientific name conveys is that scientific names are not included with common names on both plates ;nd range maps. This is most regrettable, for common names of reptiles and amphibians are far from stable even though there is some progress toward stability as present. reader is thus forced to thumb back to the text to inform himself that the Cheat Mountain Salamander is Plethodon richmondi nettingi if this information was not conveyed by the salamander's photograph or its distributional map. One can hardly justify this omis-