Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology 13 



temerity in not at once accepting his verdict. There is, how- 

 ever, the question of whether possibly spurrelli is not really 

 as distinct as Boulenger considered it to be, and no one can 

 doubt the close affinity of spurrelli and cert us. For the pres- 

 ent, therefore, it seems wisest to keep these various catagories 

 separate, although there is no doubt but that very possibly 

 adequate material might reduce both these names to be syno- 

 nyms of varius. 



The common Dendrobates tinctoriiis so abundant in the 

 dry woods on Ancon hill in the Canal Zone and the islands, 

 especially Taboga, near the Pacific mouth of the canal, differ 

 conspicuously from the individuals from eastern Darien. The 

 Canal Zone poison-toads are rich velvety black or more rarely 

 very deep purplish maroon, with large, irregular blotches of 

 the most vivid metallic green. The specimens from the Sambu 

 Valley have the same dark ground color, but differ in always 

 having the vivid green occur as small round dots about one- 

 eighth inch in diameter and widely scattered. Such a host 

 of color phases of D. tinctorius have been noticed in the liter- 

 ature that, until the far day arrives when material is assem- 

 bled for an adequate revision, it is unwise to name the one 

 in hand. Future collecting, to be useful, must best be done 

 by the reviser himself that he may see in life these creatures 

 which pass through such instant metachroses in alcohol. 



To sum up, we may say that in general in this damp rain 

 forest reptiles are surprisingly few. Amphibians, too, are far 

 from being the abundant creatures which they often are in 

 other similar situations. We saw but two small snakes during 

 all our tramps, and both of these belonged to the common 

 Leptodeira annulata. One fell from a small tree we cut down ; 

 the other, one of the men killed while night hunting. About 

 the Canal Zone snakes were far more abundant. 



