264 Sat/ on Herpttology. 



niensis, although defective, as it indicates no character, ha* 

 however the unaUenable right of priority. 



Salamandra subviolacea. Barton. This name has been re- 

 jected by Mr. Daudin, and substituted by that of venenoza, I do 

 not know for what reason, as none is assigned. 



Salamandra punctata, Gmel. This appellation was originally 

 given and restricted to the stelio of Catesby. tab. 10. (repre- 

 sented in the bill of Ardea Herodias) and was adopted by 

 many subsequent authors, but was finally rejected by Daudin, 

 who considered the species the same as Barton's subviolacea. 

 He concurred with Mr. Latreille in appropriating the name 

 thus rejected to var. /3 of Lacerta, aquatica of Gmel. Notwith- 

 standing this high authority I cannot but coincide with Pro- 

 fessor Barton in this instance, in believing it altogether distinct. 

 The single character of the subocellate spots, though not re- 

 marked by this author, is a sufficiently discriminative one ; 

 these ocellas are always present, and in no one of the varieties 

 I have seen has the approximation to the subviolacea been so 

 considerable as to render a specific discrepance -equivocal. 

 Catesby 's variety with the ocellae on the tail seems to be the 

 least common ; in general these spots, or epupillate ocellae, are 

 exclusively confined to a line on each side of the back, about 

 six in each, extending from the base of the head to the origin 

 of the tail, though there are sometimes scattered smaller ones 

 on each side of the body, and upon the vertex of the head, 

 they are of a beautiful reddish colour, enclosed by a definite 

 black areola ; the upper part of the body is brownish, with 

 numerous, distant black points, and a slight vertebral, obtuse 

 carina, the inferior surface of the body of a fine yellow or 

 orange, with distant black points, the tail* is compressed, anci- 

 pital, attenuated to an obtuse tip, longer than the body, and 

 punctured with black in like manner. The younger speci- 

 mens vary considerably, in being, on many parts of the body, 

 destitute of black punctures, and in having the dorsal and 



* Dr. Barton remarked that this part ii rounded, (cauda teres,) this observatioB 

 was not autoptical, but dictated most probably by the appearance of CatesbyV 

 figure. Iq the young animal the tail is less compressed than in the old one. 



