A few years ago in Austin I bought an old scientific paper from a dealer in used natural history literature ... from March 21, 1908, Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, Vol. XXI, pp. 69-84,"The Reptiles and Batrachians of McLennan County, Texas" by John K. Strecker, Jr. of Baylor University, Waco, Texas.
It includes notes on everything he was finding and learning about way back then ["I first began collecting reptiles in the fall of 1893 ... now the property of Baylor University"] about 75 kinds of herps, with whatever observed information on each supplied in an annotated list of the species [employing 1908 nomenclature, of course ... "batrachians" being 'amphibians'... what he calls "worm snake" = Glauconia dulcis, but most of the common and zoological names are still recognizable] ... the area was not absolutely pristine back then but certainly seems far more interesting biologically than it is today ... the Texas horned lizard was still common then, and other herps were then abundant that I, a somewhat casual observer, never spied in my few years in Texas...
This paper is a somewhat folksy account -- very much like an interview with the herper.
I'd like to give this paper to someone who is interested in wild Texas herps, and if he or she is a resident of McLennan County, Texas, all the better ... if you are such a person or know such a person, perhaps you can contact me with the information from my Web site listed below [or if you're interested in my making a copy and sending it to you]... or, otherwise, I'm looking for an appropriate library for it. Just plain copied or reissued with a little editing, it could be a great little booklet.
He tells us things we would not otherwise know, such as:
"At one time there was a good-sized grassy lagoon known as "Dry Pond," about two miles east of Waco. During my first few years of collecting this was my favorite resort. Here I collected my first specimens of Elaps fulvius [Harlequin Snake] and Tropidonotus rhombifer [Diamond Water Snake] and witnessed a migration of turtles. About seven years ago the lagoon was drained and a levee thrown up and all the glories of my serpent "Eden" have departed."
I think we lose out because we fail to repect our elders as the Good Book tells us to and their interesting accomplishments are lost to view ...
Jeffrey Caldwell
always liked herps ...
