THE BATKACHIA OF NORTH AMERICA, 173 



The head is depressed, triaugular, almost wedgesliaped viewed lat- 

 erally, and rather pointed ; more truncate iu the young. The upper jaw 

 is projecting and overlaps the lower. The gnpe is about straight. The 

 end of the upper jaw is flattened obliquely a little, visible only from be- 

 low. The nostrils are very small, placed more laterally than superiorly, 

 and a little below the anterior end of the rounded canthus rostralis, 

 The eyes are directed antero-laterall}", so that the lines of the uj^per eye- 

 lids would intersect before reaching the tip of the nose. 



There is only a slight constriction at the nech, the entire animal from 

 head to rump being nearly of the same diameter, and the body passes 

 insensibly into the tail. This is quadrate or nearly square at the base 

 (with rounded corners), but becomes more and more compressed to the 

 pointed tip. The dorsal surface of the tail rises into an acute ridge for 

 the posterior two thirds, the ventral for one-third. There are fifteen 

 costal grooves, including one in the groin. If continued to the axilla 

 there would be sixteen, but there is no distinct axillary one. The verti- 

 cal grooves of the tail are distinct at the base of the tail, but soon become 

 indistinct. 



As stated, old specimens have a proportionally larger body than 

 younger. 



The limbs are all very weak ; the digits feeble. The third finger is 

 longest, then the second, fourth, and ffrst. The third and fourth toes 

 are nearly equal, then the second. The first digits are quite rudiment- 

 ary, especially the first toe. The younger specimens appear to have 

 proportionally longer digits and more slender limbs. 



The tongue is a nearly circular disk, entirely free, supported on a 

 slender pedicel like a mushroom, and capable of being extended beyond 

 the mouth. The palatine teeth are transverse, just behind the nostrils 

 (by one diameter), and form an abrupt rectangle with each of the series 

 on the parasphenoid bone, which widen behind and leave a free chan- 

 nel down the median line. This free space anteriorly is as wide as the 

 diameter of the inner nares, but like the patches of teeth widens a lit- 

 tle behind. The space is encroached upon by the plates of parasphe- 

 noid teeth with age. 



The inner nostrils are minute, about transversely elleptical and con- 

 tinuous, with a well-defined narrow groove running out to the margin 

 of the jaw. They are situated about opposite the center of the trans- 

 verse portion of the teeth, the length of which may be about three times 

 as great as the major axis of the nostrils. 



The colors of the younger specimens of this species in alcohol are a 

 pale salmon-yellow, lighter beneath ; the back and upper part of the 

 sides sprinkled irregularly and thickly with sharply-defined blackish 

 spots, looking like grains of coarse gunpowder. These spots vary in 

 size with the specimen, and are generally larger towards the dorsal line. 

 With age, and sometimes in younger specimens, the borders of these 

 spots are less distinctly defined, and the ground color between them 



