HYNOBIIDAE. 453 



examine specimens of //. chincnsis, H. turkestanicus, H. cristatus, or of 

 Pachypalaminus boulengeri. 1001 of these specimens are in the 

 collection of the California Academy of Sciences and I am greatly in- 

 debted to the kindness of Dr. Van Denburgh for the opportunity of 

 examining them, and for some notes which he sent me on the unique 

 type of Pachypalaminus. I am also indebted to Dr. Leonhard Stejne- 

 ger for permission to examine the Hynobiidae in the collection of the 

 National Museum; to Dr. Thomas Barbour for the loan of material 

 from the Museum of Comparative Zoology; to Dr. G. K. Noble for 

 the loan of the American Museum specimens ; to Dr. H. H. Wilder for 

 the type of H. himurai; to Mrs. Arthur Johnson for copies of the 

 original descriptions of H. cristatus and //. chinensis: to Dr. H. M. 

 Parshley for casting a critical eye over the whole; to Mr. Tadanori 

 Ono for skilful rendition of Japanese into English; to Mr. Austin 

 Clarke and Miss Alexandria Gerecht for similar help with the Russian; 

 and to Mr. Shunlchi Ono for several of the most important Japanese 

 papers. 



Family HYNOBIIDAE Cope. 



1850. Molgidae Gray, Cat. Bat. Grad. Brit, Mus., p. 14. 



1858. Ellipsoglossidae Hallowell, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, (2), 3, 



p. 339. 



1859. Hynobiinae Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, p. 125. 



1866. Hynobiidae Cope, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, (2), 6, p. 107. 



Range: From the Urals to Kamchatka, Sakhalin, and the Islands 

 of Japan; Formosa; Sosova River, Verkoyansk, and Anadyr to Semi- 

 ryechensk and Sze-chuan. 



Diagnosis: A family of salamanders which complete the trans- 

 formation; haemal arch complete in tail vertebrae; ribs not forked 

 proximally; prearticular bone present; first epibranchial and first 

 ceratobranchial fused into a cartilaginous rod; second epibranchial 

 present; nasals meeting in middorsal line; nasal spines of premaxillae 

 very short; no fronto-squamosal arch; pterygoids present; prevomer 

 long or short; no parasphenoid tooth patches; lungs present or 

 absent; ypsiloid cartilage present; pubotibialis muscle fused with 

 the puboischiotibialis; fertilization external; males without papillae 

 in cloaca; females without spermatheca; no excessive dorso- ventral 

 flattening; iliotibialis muscle in contact with ilioextensorius; vomerine 

 teeth not anterior in position, not parallel to maxillary teeth ; 5 genera, 

 21 species. 



