■24 Prof. A. Heilprin on the 



IV. — On a rare American Neiot, Molge nieridionalis, Cope. 

 By G. A. BOULENGER. 



The Natural-History Museum has obtained from Mr. W. 

 Taylor, of San Diego, Texas, three specimens of a newt 

 noticed by Cope in 1880 (Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. no. 17, 

 p. 30) under the name of Diemyctylvs miniatus^ Raf., subsp. 

 meridionalis, from south-western Texas and Matamoras, 

 Mexico. A comparison with the numerous specimens oi Molge 

 viridescens { = D. miniatus) in tlie Museum convinces me 

 that the southern form deserves to rank as a distinct species, 

 to be called Molge meridionalis. One structural difference 

 noticed by Cope is that the outer finger is more than half as 

 long as the penultimate, while in ilf. viridescens it is less 

 than half as long. To this character I have to add that the 

 head is more depressed, broader, with the lores less vertical, 

 in fact very similar to that of M. alpestris. The gular fold is 

 strongly marked (absent or scarcely distinct in il/. viridescens). 

 The colour, in spirit, is olive above, with lighter marblings 

 and small black spots ; yellow interiorly with round black 

 spots, which are larger than in M. viridescens. The largest 

 specimen^ a female, measures 55 millim. from snout to cloaca. 

 Prof. Cope notices " that the presence of the temporal 

 pits cannot be used as a definition of the genus Diemi/ctylus^ 

 since they are as often wanting as present." I find that 

 these three large pits are present in all male and absent or 

 very small in all female specimens I have examined. They 

 are the openings to so many small pouches directed back- 

 wards, the coating of which is strongly glandular. What the 

 object of these secretory organs is, is unknown, and may per- 

 il aps long remain so, judging by the analogous case of the 

 femoral pores of lizards, the use of which is still unexplained. 

 Considering that M. viridescens is as common in the Eastern 

 and Central States as M. vulgaris in Northern and Central 

 Europe, it is to be hoped that American zoologists will soon 

 pay attention to this point. 



v.— On the Aj^nity of the North- American Lizard^ 

 Fauna. By Prof. Angelo Heilpein. 



The November number of the * Annals and Magazine of 

 Natural History ' contains an article under the above heading 

 in which Mr. Boulenger seeks to invalidate my conclusions 



