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. 



