208 BULLETIN 160, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



crossbars on the tibia interrupted. The diagnosis published by Cope 

 in 1889 reads as follows: 



Head entering length of head and body two and a half to nearly three times; 

 no external vocal vesicles; muzzle more or less acuminate; spots less distinct; 

 tibia generally crossbarred; no longitudinal band on front of femur. 



In 1886, Cope ^^ states that the "Rana halecina, Kalm, subspecies 

 berlandieri" in his *^ "Check-List of North American Batrachia and 

 Reptiha " is not the Rana berlandieri of Baird. Again in 1889, Cope ** 

 remarks that the "last named subspecies [i. e., Rana virescens hrachy- 

 cephala Cope] is the one I called R. v. berlanderi fsic], but it turns out 

 that the typical specimens of that species belong to the subspecies 

 virescens." Taken at its face value, this statement is rather contra- 

 dictory, for Cope listed the cotype of R. berlandieri Baird (U.S.N.M. 

 No. 3293) among the specimens referred to his subspecies R. virescens 

 brachycephala. What Cope seemingly intended to say was that "the 

 typical specimens" of the Rana halecina berlandieri of his check list 

 actually belong to the subspecies virescens. 



The subspecific name brachycephala appears for the first time in 

 1886 in Cope's "Synonymic List of North American species of Bujo 

 and Rana" where its habitat is given as the "Central and Sonoran 

 regions." No description accompanies the name, and the synonymy 

 includes two citations, one of which is the "2?. h. berlandieri Cope" of 

 his "Check List" pubhshed in 1875 and the other, "Rana halecina 

 Boulenger, Cat. Batr. Brit. Mus., ed. ii, p. 41, nee Kalmii." Until 

 the publication of Cope's "Batrachia of North America," the sub- 

 specific name brachycephala was strictly a nomen nudvm, inasmuch 

 as the characters that distinguished this subspecies from supposedly 

 typical halecina [ = virescens Cope, 1889] were not indicated. Cope's 

 diagnosis of the subspecies brachycephala published in 1889 is seem- 

 ingly based upon one specimen, and this inference is drawn from his 

 introductory remark that "I select as typical a specimen from the 

 Yellowstone River (No. 3363)." There are, however, 15 specimens 

 catalogued under that number, although Cope mentions only 5 in 

 his list of specimens examined, and all of them were collected by Dr. 

 F. V. Hayden in 1857 along the Yellowstone River in Montana. 

 This lot consists of 2 adults, 1 young, and 12 tadpoles. Inasmuch as 

 it is now impossible to recognize the actual individual upon which Cope 

 based his description, all these specimens have been designated as 

 the cotypes of the subspecies brachycephala. The following notes 

 apply to the largest cotype: Head-and-body length, 86; transverse 



" Cope, E. D., Synonymic list of North American species of Bufo and Rana, with descriptions of some 

 new species of Batrachia, from specimens in the National Museum. Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc, vol. 23, 

 no. 124, p. 517, Oct. 1, 1886. 



" Cope, E. D., Check-list of North American Batrachia and Reptilia. U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 1, 

 p. 32, 1875. 



" Cope, E. D., U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 34, p. 398, 1889. 



