THE EYES OF THE BLIND VERTEBRATES OF NORTH AMERICA. VII. THE EYES OF AMPHISB.ENA PUNCTATA (BELL), A BLIND LIZARD FROM CUBA.' FERNANDUS PAYNE. Amphisbcena pitnctata is a blind legless lizard which burrows in the ground. It is common in Cuba to which it is restricted. How deep it burrows, I do not know, but it is often turned out by the plow. The specimens obtained ranged from 103 to 245 mm. in length. The head is short, hard and pointed, and the tip of the upper jaw projects slightly beyond the tip of the lower jaw. In shape, arrangement of the dermal plates, and in the color of the ventral surface of the body it closely resembles an earthworm. The dorsal surface is flesh-color with small brown spots. The tail is short and flattened dorsoventrally. In a specimen 245 mm. in length, there were 225 annuli on the dorsal side, 202 on the ventral and 15 on the tail. In this specimen the tail was one thirteenth and the head one thirty-fifth the length of the body. Methods.--The lizards were put alive into formalin. They were afterwards changed to alcohol. For decalcification, the heads were placed in five per cent, nitric acid from twenty to thirty days. A shorter period did not give satisfactory results. Some of the heads were imbedded in paraffin and others in paraffin and celloidin. In using the latter method I imbedded the head in celloidin in the usual manner and hardened in chloroform. From chloroform I transferred the block to soft paraffin for twenty-four hours and thence to hard paraffin for twenty-four hours, after which I imbedded the block in paraffin. 1 Contribution from the Zoological laboratory of Indiana University, No. 77. The material used in the preparation of this paper was incidentally collected during several expeditions to Cuba. The prime object of the expeditions was to collect life history material of the Cuban blind fishes, Lnci/tiga and Sty : *icola. They were undertaken with a grant of $l,ooo from the Carnegie Institution. 60
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