510 Miscellaneous. 



waring, in damp situations amongst decaying leaves and sticks. 

 There is, however, nothing remarkable in this diiference of habit ; 

 for the common eft of Europe is not unfrequeutly to be found on 

 dry land at some distance from water under logs of wood, there 

 being no necessity for the Urodelous Amphibia, after they have 

 passed through that stage of their existence dui'ing which they are 

 provided with external gills for aquatic respiration, to keep to the 

 water. The entire order of tailed Amphibia is confined to the tem- 

 perate parts of the northern hemisphere ; but two species have 

 already been described from countries the fauna of which is lai-gely 

 leavened by Indo-!Malayan forms, — Cynops chinensis having been 

 recorded from near Xingpo, and Plethodon ■persimUis from Siam. 

 This occurrence of a newt within the limits of the Oriental region 

 is far from being without a parallel in other groups of animals also — 

 Nectorjale (vide W. T. Blauford, P. A. S. B. 1876), Anurosorex, 

 probably also Crossopus, and a host of animals, vertebrate and inver- 

 tebrate, extending still further southwards, being only to be looked 

 upon as stragglers from the Paloearctic region or as outposts of it, 

 to use the happy phrase of Dr. Giinther. The onl}- other form of 

 newt at all resembling T. verrucosus, in which horny matter, accu- 

 mulated at the points where the ends of the ribs press against the 

 external integument, forms on each side of the middle line of the 

 body along the upperside of the flanks a conspicuous row of great 

 rough horny tubercles, is Pleurodeles, in which these bosses are 

 sometimes so highly developed as to have given rise to the incorrect 

 notion that the ends of the ribs projected freely through the skin. — 

 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, February 1877. 



On the Value of certain Arguments of Transformism derived from 

 the Evolution of the Dentary Follicles in the Ruminants. By 



M. V. PrETKIEWICZ. 



In a communication made to the British Association in 1839, 

 Goodsir announced that he had discovered in the jaw of the calf and 

 lamb the germs of incisors and canines, and even of a molar, inter- 

 mediate between the abortive canine and the molars which nor- 

 mally exist in those animals. GeoiFroy Saint -Hil aire had previously 

 described abortive dentary germs in the lower jaw of Balcena mysti- 

 cetus. The naturalists, and the partisans of the theory of trans- 

 formism, Darwin especially, grasped at this idea, which, in 

 conjunction with data furnished by comparative anatomy and palae- 

 ontology, enabled groups of animals previously separated to be 

 brought into relation. 



Thus the dental formula of the ordinary Buminants is I. •§-, C. ^, 

 M. "I, and that of the omnivorous Pachyderms (such as the wild 

 boar and the hippopotamus) I. ^, C. |, M. ^. But two or three 

 genera of Buminants possess upper canines ; and their formula is 

 I. ^, C. ]. M. ^ ; and the camels and llamas have, in addition, a pair 



