4 BULLETIN 58, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



occurs in eastern North America, and Megalohatrachus , known from 

 Japan and China. They are so closely allied that osteologists and 

 paleontologists prefer to regard the two latter at least as congeneric, 

 but the closing of the branchial fissure in the adult Megalohatrachus 

 seems to be sufficient reason for adopting the latter genus. In the 

 American genus the fissure remains open throughout life. 



Genus MEGALOBATRACHUS" Tschudi. 



1837. Megnlobatrachus Tschudi, Neues Jahrb. Mineral. Geol. Palseont., (Stutt- 



gart) 1837, Pt. 5, September, p. 547 (type, M. sicboldi). 



1838. Sieboldia Bonaparte in Gray, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., May, 1838, p. 413 



(same type). 

 1838. Sieboldtia Agassiz, in Anhang to Tschudi's Classif . Batr. (err. typogr.). 

 1840. Hydrosalaviandra Leuckart Froriep's Neue Notizen, XIII, No. 2, Jan. 



1840, p. 20 (same type). 

 1854. Tritomegas Dumeril and Bibron, Erpet. Gen., IX, p. 163 (same type). 

 1904. Sieboldiana Ishikawa, Proc. Nat. Hist. Tokyo Imp. Mus., I, No. 2, p. 21 



(emendation). 



Unless it can be shown that Bonaparte published his Sieholdia 

 before September, 1837, it will have to give way to Tschudi's Megalo- 

 hatrachus. Agassiz (1. c), on September 29, 1838, speaks of "the 

 established priority" of the former,'' but, like many later authors, he 

 evidently regarded Megalohatraclius as first proposed by Tschudi in 

 his " Classification der Batrachier, " which Agassiz himself published in 

 October, 1838. As will be seen from the above synonymy Tschudi 

 had already j^ublished it in September, 1837, a fact of which Agassiz 

 was apparently unaware. 



Few animals can boast such an extensive literature as the Japanese 

 giant salamander. The bibliography attached to this work and the 

 synonymic list of quotations under the head of the species, greatly 

 defective as they are, give a fair indication of the interest this animal 

 and especially its anatomy has aroused among naturalists. It is 

 only recently, however, that accurate and detailed observations on 

 its habits and propagation have been made. A good account based 

 upon ample experience in the field has been published by Prof. C. 

 Sasaki ,'^ and recently Prof. C. Ishikawa has supplemented his notes by 

 xevy important observations on the eggs and newly hatched young.'^ 

 Finally, Dr. C. Kerbert, in Amsterdam, has succeeded in making the 

 giant salamander breed in captivity, thus being able to follow the 

 process from the laying of the eggs to the hatcliing of the larvse and 

 their subsequent growth and change. A brief summary of their 

 observations may be included here. According to them the giant 



« From/<£;?^d/\os=//fxas,great; ^Scrpaxo(i, frog, or, in this case, batrachian. 



& "Die constatirte Prioritat seines Namens Sieboldtia." 



c Joum. Coll. Sci. Tokyo, I, Pt. 3, 1887, pp. 269-274. 



d Proc. Nat. Hist. Tokyo Imp. Mus., I, No. 2, 1904, pp. 19-37. 



