General Notes. 123 



THE BLACK VULTURE IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AND 



MARYLAND. 



There are so few record? of the black vulture (Coragyps urubu) in the 

 District of Columbia and Maryland that the following notes will be of 

 interest. On February 21, 1917, a black vulture appeared among the 

 wild resident turkey vultures in the National Zoological Park, Washing- 

 ton, D. C. As commonly the case with birds of the species, it was quite 

 tame; and curiously enough it soon found the large, open cage in which 

 two black vultures from the South are kept. It remained in the Park 

 until March 10, watering with the turkey vultures at a puddle in the elk 

 pasture and spending a large portion of each day near the buildings about 

 the black vulture cage, where food was provided for it. This record has 

 an added interest because Dr. C. W. Richmond tells me that an adult 

 female specimen of the black vulture was shot at Perryman, Harford 

 County, Maryland, about February 8 or 9, and was received fresh at the 

 United States National Museum February 10, 1917, from Mrs. John T. 

 Lear of that place. — N. Hollisler. 



THE SALAMANDER GENUS RANODON IN NORTH AMERICA. 



The discovery just announced by Miss Helen Thompson Gaige (Occ. 

 Pap. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan, No. 40, May 30, 1917) of a new species 

 of Ranodon occurring in the Olympic Mountains of Washington, almost 

 rivals in interest that of Ascaphus truei, the only representative of the 

 Old World bell-toad family, the Discoglossidae, in the same region 

 eighteen years ago. 



Ranodon belongs to the family Ambystomidae, which is so well repre- 

 sented in North America, but more particularly to the section typified 

 by the genus Hynobius, which is almost confined to Eastern temperate 

 Asia. The most startling circumstance, however, connected with this 

 new American salamander which has received the name Ranodon olym- 

 picus is that the genus Ranodon in Asia, so far as known, is confined to 

 the western part of that continent. It is in fact the most western genus 

 of the family, if we except the more northern Salamandrella which occurs 

 from the Ural to the Pacific coast, and Hynobius which is also represented 

 in Turkestan by a species. I wish to emphasize and elaborate this point 

 because the habitat of Ranodon sibiricus is generally, but quite erron- 

 eously, stated to be Eastern Siberia and Northeastern China. As far as 

 I know, Ranodon sibiricus has not as yet been found east of 85° E. Long. 

 Greenw., and seems to be confined to the western foothills of the Thian- 

 Slian, Ala-tau and Altai mountain ranges, in one locality, at least, reach- 

 ing an altitude of 6000 feet. Its center of distribution appears to be 

 Semirietchensk, the "land of the seven rivers" between lakes Balkash 

 and Issyk-kul. The type came from Semipalatinsk ; Severzof records it 

 from near Viernoye, Ballion from Kopal, and Kulagin from Tashkent, 

 all in Russian Turkestan ; Strauch and Nikolski mention specimens in 

 the St. Petersburgh Academy from Kulja, in Chinese territory not far 



