438 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



profile not at all convex; the premaxillaries projecting well beyond the 

 front of the snont. Mouth very large, oblique, the jaws subeqnal, or 

 the lower slightly projecting; maxillary extending far beyond the eye 

 to nearly oi)posite the middle of the cheek, its length being a little 

 more than half head. Teeth in moderate bauds, slender, the outer 

 series moderately enlarged. Eyes large, placed close together, as long 

 as snout, about 4.J in head. 



Body entirely scaleless. Fins all somewhat mutilated, so that the 

 numbers of fin-rays are not readily ascertained, especially in the anal. 

 Dorsal spines very slender and flexible; base of soft dorsal forming 

 about two-fifths length of body ; the fin well separated from the spinous 

 dorsal. Caudal rather short, its tip apparently convex. Anal fin long. 

 Pectorals and ventrals mutilated, apparently of moderate length. 



Color light olivaceous; back, sides, and upper fins speckled with 

 dark olive ; caudal with 3 or 4 dark olive cross-bars ; head with some 

 dark markings; lower fins pale. 



The type is a female specimen 2 inches in length, full of nearly ripe 

 ova. It was obtained from the stomach of a specimen of Hexagrammns 

 aiqyer, captured by the writers in Saanich Arm, on the eastern shore of 

 Vancouver's Island, in June, 1880. The specimen has been somewhat 

 injured by the process of digestion, but all the distinctive characters 

 can be readily made out. Its slender body and large mouth distinguish 

 it at once from most species of the genus. 



Indiana University, August 10. 



DSSCKIPTIOIVJ^ OF IVEIV SPECIES OF REPTILES AN1> AI?1PHIBIAIVS 

 IIV THE VISITED STATES IVATIOJVAt. MtSEUiTI. 



By H. C. YARRO\*% M. D. (Unir. Penu.), 

 Honorary Curatory Department of Reptiles. 



Ophibolus getulus niger, subsp. nov. 



In a valuable and interesting collection of reptiles, from Wheatland, 

 Indiana, made by Mr. Eobert Eidgway in 1881 were three specimens 

 of Ophibolus which difter so materially from the ordinary Ophibolus 

 getulus that it seems necessary to assign them a position as a sub- 

 species, and the above name is therefore proposed. 



Description.— Color entirely black with the exception of the under 

 part of the head; upper and lower labials marked like the typical 

 0. getulus. Head plates entirely black, not spotted, and in none of the 

 specimens examined are light central spots on the head- scales to be seen. 

 Verticals, occipitals, and superciliaries more elongated and narrower 

 than in the normal type; frontals and prefrontals about the same. 

 Abdominal scutell^ plumbeous white spotted, not yellow. A peculiarity 

 of the type specimens from which this description is prepared is that 

 the third, fourth, and fifth postabdominal scutellte are entire, not 



