PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 551 



ing darker upward ; upper third, except the extreme tip, clear light 

 rufous ; extreme tip very dark browu or blackish. The colors of a 

 spine from the same region are similar, but the rufous ring and terminal 

 blackish area occupy together only the upper fifth of the spine. On 

 the shoulders the general arrangement of colors is the same, but the 

 majority of the spiues are gray throughout, light at the base and dark 

 at the tip, and the subterminal ring of the hairs is naples yellow in- 

 stead of rufous. 



The under surface of the body is clothed with rather harsh, mostly 

 flattened, hairs, which are of a very pale grayish color throughout their 

 lower half and very light opaque yellowish-white above. The upper 

 surfaces of the hands and feet have the color of the shoulders. 



The tail is sparsely clothed with flattened, lustrous, faintly-brownish 

 hairs about a half inch in length, which do not obscure the scales. 



luohes. 



Length of head and body 9. 9 



Length of tail 8.0 



Length of hind foot (without claws) 1.5 



Length of fore foot 8 



Height of ear-conch 4 



The occurrence of this South American form in the island of Martin- 

 ique is an interesting but not unparalleled fact. The venomous Lance- 

 head serpent {Bothrops lanceolatum), indigenous to South America, is 

 also found in considerable abundance in Martinique and some of the 

 adjacent islands. The absence of any allusions to the occurrence of the 

 Strong spined Loncheres in the Carribees would seem to indicate that 

 the species has been recently introduced. It is probable t hat a consider- 

 able number of species of the smaller South Ameiicau rodents are 

 brought over to the islands from time to time by sailing vessels and 

 otherwise, which, being unable to breed, live out their natural term and 

 then disai)pear. 



Mr. Ober procured but a single specimen of the rodent under consid- 

 eration, and there is nothing in his book ujion the Carribees, or upon the 

 label, indicating that the species is at all common in Martinique. 



December 19, 1884. 



NOTES ON FISHES COLLECTED AT SAN CRISTOBAL, LOWER CAL 

 IFORNIA, BY MR. CHARLES H. TOWNSEND, ASSISTANT, U. S. 

 FISH COMMISSION. 



Uj ROSA SraiTB. 



1. Rupiscartes* atlanticus Cuv. & Val. (No. 36946.) 

 Head, 4 (5 in total) ; depth, 4^ (5^). D. XII, 22; A. JI, 23. 

 Bodj' rather slender, gradually tapering backward from the head. 

 Head not very broad ; its greatest breadth 1^ in greatest depth ; profile 



* Following a siiggeetion of Professor Jordan, I use the name Bupiscoj-tes of Swain- 

 aon for the species of Saluritis having canine teeth. 



