374 Prof. J. van der Hoeven on the Genus Menobranchus. 



myself have insisted strongly upon this very difference between 

 two species which otherwise present so many points of reciprocal 

 relation. We would also remove a confusion which exists relative 

 to the reptile in the Museum of Hellwig, described by Schneider. 

 We have cited this reptile as a Menobranchus ; and the authors 

 of the 'Erpetologie' give it also among the synonyms of Meno- 

 branchus lateralis (p. 184) ; but they have at the same time 

 translated Schneider^s description into French and applied it 

 in the case of Siredon Harlanii, affirming that it accords per- 

 fectly with this latter (p. 181). In order that it might do so, 

 however, the authors of the ' Erpetologie ^ have added to the 

 account of the feet (tetradactyli omnes) the words " les pattes 

 posterieures en ont cinq." There is no reason whatever for accre- 

 diting Schneider with this error; and in any case his descrip- 

 tion should not be cited for two different species: it applies 

 properly to Menobranchus without any such modification. 



It is perhaps not inadmissible to terminate a notice of the 

 doubtful reptiles by a speculation. There is a species of Batra- 

 chian from California, known to me only through the figure and 

 description in the Zoological Atlas* of Prof. Eschscholtz, and 

 which that author has named Triton ensatus. 



This species has been referred to the Salamandra Jeffersoniana 

 of Green, of which Tschudi has constituted the genus Xiphonura. 

 Such, however, is not the opinion of one author, who is well 

 acquainted with these species from the United States of America, 

 Mr. Spencer Baird, and who does not place this figure of 

 Eschscholtz among the synonyms of his Ambystoma Jeffersoniana 

 (p. 283), but refers to Triton ensatus among the species which 

 are doubtful or known only through the descriptions of authors. 

 It is very desirable that this Californian species should receive 

 further examination. Its dimensions of 11^ inches would lead 

 us to suppose that it belongs to the group we are at present 

 engaged upon ; and its skull, figured in the Atlas of Eschscholtz 

 and described by Rathke, presents (as this latter author has 

 already remarked) many points of relation to the Crypto- 

 hranchus of the Alleghanies. It is to be lamented that the eyes 

 were ill preserved, and that the description does not inform us 

 whether they were furnished with lids or not. I am almost in- 

 clined to suppose that eyelids did not exist, but on this point I 

 feel a certain amount of doubt. In fine, I should be in no way 

 astonished were this animal, when better known, to call for the 

 establishment of a new genus, akin to Cryptobranchus. 



* Zoologischer Atlas : Abbildungen und Beschreibungen neuer Thier- 

 arten wahrend des Flott-Capitains von Kotzebue zweiter Reise um die 

 Welt beobachtet von Dr. F. Eschscholtz, 5tes Heft. Berlin, 1833. 



