300 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OF The only other whale recorded as taken in the Chesapeake is mentioned in the above article as having been captured near New Point Comfort, Matthews County, north of Mobjack Bay, a few years previously. On the REPTILIA and BATRACHIA of the Sonoran Province of the Nearctio Begion, BY EDW. D. COPE. The material on which the present essay is based, is a collection made by Dr. Elliott Coues during a sojourn of sixteen months in and ''travels over the Territory of Arizona from east to west, chiefly near the parallel of 35, and along ihe valley of the Colorado from Fort Mojave to Fort Yuma." Notes of observations made by Dr. Coues on the different species materially add to their interest. BATRACHIA. Urodela. Amblystoma ?nebulosum Hallowell, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. (?.) v. 252, iii. In the Siredon stage differing from the S. gracil is Baird in its oblique branchial arches with finer pectinations, and in coloration. On the anterior side of he third arch, twenty pectinations or rakers may be counted ; in the S. pisciformis (or mexicanus) there are but twelve. Color in life " shining green above, silvery greenish-white below, more yellowish about legs and gills; a few obsolete scattered black spots on head and b ick. Eyes and branchial fimbrias black," (Coues' notes). 455 56 9 from Jacob's well ; No. 491^ from a deep water tank in the rocks of the San Francisco moun-tains. Male about seven inches long ; branchiae well developed ; gular derm free half-way to symphysis mandibuli. Twelve costal folds. Muzzle slightly narrowed jaws equal. Lateral and dorsal peritonaeum black. The lungs extend to opposite the inguinal region. Corpus adiposum extending on testes to their anterior extremity. Testes undivided, broad, length equal half that from axilla to anus ; efferent vessels numerous, not entering directly the vas uro-spermaticus. The latter is very slender, lying along the outer margin, but not in contact with, the narrow kidney; opposite the latter re-currently convolute, anterior to it straight, and extending to opposite axilla with decreasing diameter. It empties into the rectum near the cloaca. Cloaca protected on each side by a large vertical compressed gland, which is fringed on its inferior border, (which is received into the lip of the cloaca,) and also on its superior margin, which lies next the caudal vertebr e. It is continu-ous in front of anus ; behind the two edges are pressed together. Integument of cloaca throVn into numerous appressed vertical plicae, as in other Sire-dons. Stomach straight, extending to the left groin, filled with larvae of Diptera Nematocera. Intestines long, rectum large. Female smaller, many of the ova black. Tn these animals the tarsal and carpal bones are fully formed, but cartilaginous. The pterygoid and pala-tine teeth in continuous series, the latter slightly separated medially, and coin eniric with maxillary series. On this character, preserved in a stage of an allied species without branchiir, I proposed the genus Camarataxis, the validity of which can only be established when the development of all our Amblystomas is known. It is a stage nearer the larval condition than the transverse series of A. o p a c u m, while the /\-shaped series of A. 1 u r i-d u m is intermediate. [Oct.
BioStor
