1864. | DR. J. E. GRAY ON DACTYLETHRA. 459 
Dr. Giinther, in his excellent ‘Catalogue of Batrachia Salientia 
in the British Museum,’ published in 1858, admits the two species, 
and appears not to have observed the minute beard under the 
eyes in the specimens from South and West Africa, then in the 
Museum collection; but when we received, in 1862, the specimen 
from Natal collected by Mr. Ayres, he named it the D. miilleri of 
Peters. 
Professor Auguste Duméril, in his paper on African Reptiles, 
published in the ‘ Archives du Muséum,’ vol. x. (1861), makes some 
observations on the distinction of the two species, and figures the 
head of D. capensis and the entire animal of D. miilleri, showing the 
little beard under the eyes in the latter figure and not in the former. 
He also makes the head of D. capensis more produced and narrowed 
in front than in his figure of D. miilleri; but I cannot see any such 
difference between the heads of the Cape and Western African spe- 
cimens in the Museum collection. 
I may observe that if these naturalists had examined specimens 
from South Africa, either near the Cape or even so far north as 
Natal, they would have found the same beard in the true Dactyle- 
thra capensis, showing that this beard, at least, is a character of 
the genus, and not a peculiarity of the Mozambique or West Afri- 
can specimens. 
In several of the specimens the beard under the eyes, at least when 
it is preserved in spirits, varies in size on the two sides of the 
animal; and in one specimen it is searcely visible on one side, and 
well developed on the other. 
Dr. Peters also gives as a character of his D. miilleri, that it has a 
spur at the base of the first toe; and Dr. Hallowell observes that 
the specimen he had from Gaboon “ differs from the Dactylethra of 
the Cape, more especially in the presence of a sharp-pointed spur 
projecting from the cuneiform bone, which is not observed in Dac- 
tylethra capensis.” 
Dr. Ginther, in his ‘ Catalogue’ (p. 2), also uses this spur as 
part of the specific character. He says— 
D. levis. ‘Tarsus and metatarsus without any tubercle or spur.” 
D. miilleri. ‘A spur at the base of the first toe.” 
Professor Auguste Duméril, in the paper before referred to, figures 
- the feet of D. capensis (t. 18. f. 6, 6a) for the purpose of comparing 
* it with the feet of the other figure (of D. miilleri), and observes, “On 
peut saisir ainsi des dissemblances fort evidentes des deux espéces”’ 
(p. 232), showing the spur very distinct in the latter, and not visible 
in the former,—in fact, making the figure agree with the characters 
assigned, as in the case of the beard under the eyes, rather than as 
they are in nature. 
On examining the specimens from the Cape of Good Hope (col- 
lected by Sir Andrew Smith and Mr. Hunter), from West Africa 
(collected by Mr. Fraser and Mr. Welwitsch), and from Natal (col- 
lected by the Rev. H. Callaway and Mc. T. Ayres), I find they all 
have exactly the same kind of spur, which is léast distinctly marked 
in the latter specimen from Natal, called D. miilleri by Dr. Giinther ; 
