320 Miscellaneous. 



origin to the roots of the byssus, which, in the form of lamellae, 

 ©."icupy the chambers between these sejjta. — Zooloc/ischer Anzeiger, 

 ^>. 260, September 12, 1887, pp. 488-490. 



Ovo-viviparous Generation in Tropidonotus. 



Professor Heilprin presented the following communication, dated 

 April 15, 1887, from Mr. H. C. Young, of the Philadelphia Custom 

 House, referring to a water-snake shot by that gentleman some 

 fourteen years ago, at a locality about three miles above Salem, 

 N. 5 . :— 



" Upon examining the snake (which was almost as thick as my 

 forearm) I found it contained considerable of a bunch which I 

 supposed to be something it had swallowed ; but upon cutting it 

 open I found it contained small snakes in a bag, each one in a sepa- 

 rate division formed as it were by a twist in the bag. I took them 

 out, and found there were thirty-three of them of different sizes, a 

 number of the smaller ones having a portion of an egg attached to 

 them, which they appeared to be absorbing, the larger ones having 

 already absorbed theirs. I was then convinced that while the 

 land-snakes lay eggs in the earth, to be hatched by the heat of the 

 sun, the young of the water-snake are actually hatched in the belly 

 of the mother." 



Prof. Heilprin stated that the snakes had been presented by 

 Mr. Young to the Academy, and on examination proved to be Tro- 

 pidonotus sipedon. The case demonstrated beyond a question of 

 doubt that the species was ovo-viviparous. — Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. 

 Philad., April 26, 1887, p. 121. 



Literature of the Fossil Ganoid^ Semionotua. 

 Ey A. Smith Woodward. 



The appearance of the new part of Dr. Zittel's admirable ' Hand- 

 buch der Palseontologie ' has enabled me to discover Dr. Fraas's 

 description of Semionbtus Kapjffi, for which I had long sought in 

 vain while preparing the list of species published in the last num- 

 ber of the ' Annals ' (p. 178). Both the description and figures 

 wiU be found in the ' Wiirttembergische Jahreshefte,' vol. xvii. 

 (1861), p. 91, pi. i., and here are also made known two other 

 Keuper forms, S. elongatus and S. serrafics, which differ from the 

 Brora Jurassic fossil, among other points, in the characters denoted 

 by their respective specific names. Dr. Zittel likewise refers to 

 some brief descriptions of Italian Jurassic species by Beilotti, in 

 Stoppani's ' Studii geologici e paleontologici suUa Lombardia ' 

 (1859), none of which apparently agrees with the new Semionotus 

 Joassi. 



It may be well to point oiit, moreover, that in the figure of S. 

 Joassi (supra, PI. VIII. fig. 1) the artist has unfortunately omitted 

 to include some fragments of the anal fin, which indicate that this 

 appendage originally possessed more rays than are now completely 

 shown, thus having a longer base and extending somewhat further 

 back towards the tail. 



