Hurter — Herpetology of Missouri. 91 



Habits. — I became acquainted with this salamander at 

 Granite Mountain, near Little Rock, Ark., where Mr, J. 

 R. Fordyce and I collected quite a number from under 

 rocks lying in the water and at the edge of a small brook 

 emerging from a spring. A few weeks ago my friend, Mr. 

 Lee Earll, sent me a specimen which he had captured near 

 Marble Cave, Mo. This is the first specimen I have ob- 

 tained from the State. 



Family Desmognathidae. 



Palatine teeth borne on transverse processes of the palatine bones. 

 Parasphenoid with two thin plates, bearing elongate patches of teeth. 

 Parietals not embracing frontals. Prefrontals and pterygoids want- 

 ing. Occipital condyles with pedicles. Carpus and tarsus cartilagrin- 

 ous. Vertebrae opisthocoelian. Peculiar to America.' 



Genus typhlotriton. 



Vertebrae opisthocoelous; parasphenoid and vomerine teeth. Eyes 

 concealed under the continuous skin of the head; tongue attached in 

 front and along the median line, free laterally and posteriorly; maxillar 

 and mandibular teeth small and numerous; vomerine teeth in two 

 strongly curved series; parasphenoid patches separate; nostrils very 

 small; toes five. (Stejneger.) 



18. Typhloteiton spelaeus Stejneger. Veil-eyed or Blind 

 Salamander. 



Description. — Sixteen costal grooves; tail slightly compressed, not 

 finned; toes nearly half-webbed; vomerine teeth in two V-shaped series. 



' The families of Plethodontidae and Desmognathidae are founded on 

 internal characters, and require some dissections. These, however, 

 are not difficult to make. By making a short incision along the back 

 of the specimen in hand, dressing away the muscular tissue down to 

 the vertebral column, and then sharply bending the back so that two 

 of the vertebrae separate, it may be seen whether the anterior rounded 

 head of the vertebrae is made of cartilage or bone. If it is of cartilage, 

 the vertebrae are amphicoelous; if of bone, opisthocoelous. In either 

 case, the posterior end of the vertebral centrum is concave. In like 

 manner the wrist and ankle may be dissected and the determination 

 made whether the nodules found in them are composed wholly of car- 

 tilage or are bony. Since, however, we have no species where these parts 

 are bony, as in Thorius from Mexico, this examination is not neces- 

 sary. (Hay.) 



