THE BATRACHIA OF NORTH AMERICA. 179 



Spelerpes ruber montanus Baird. 



Psciidotriton montanus Baird, Journ. Phikidelphia Academy, i, 287-293; Gray. I. c, p. 46. 



The external characters of this subspecies are much as in P. ruber as 

 to pits, smoothness, etc. 



The form of this animal is more like that of Gyrlnophilus porphyriticm 

 in being elongated, cylindrical, and with the tail nearly equal to the dis- 

 tance from the head to the groin. 



The head is rather small and narrow. The proportion of eyes, etc., 

 much as in B. ruber. The snout is, however, more abruptly truncated, 

 showing the nostrils on each side at the corner formed with the side of 

 the head, and with an indistinct ridge running down to the jaw as in 

 G. porphyriticus, but less marked. The top of the head is more convex, 

 and not flattened between the eyes. The tongue is a circular pedun- 

 culated disk. The teeth curve gently from behind the inner nares to 

 the parasphenoid bone, not at an angle, and the two longitudinal series 

 are so close continuously as to exhibit no furrow of separation, and very 

 little of one behind. The palatine portion does not extend outwards 

 beyond the outer border of the inner nostrils. 



Professor Baird described this species in 1849 from a single adult 

 specimen caught in the South Mountain, near Carlisle, Pa. Since 

 then several others from different localities have been obtained, and 

 after the renewed examination of many specimens of S. ruber I am 

 satisfied of its distinction as a subspecies. The coloration is always 

 appreciably different in the very dark iris without longitudinal bar of 

 Montanus, compared with the brassy-yellow iris with longitudinal dark 

 barof Kuber. The groundcolor above is uniformly and continuously 

 brownish-salmon, much as in G. porphyriticus, with a few well defined 

 circular spots. In Ruber where the ground color has become dark red- 

 dish-brown, it is always mottled with lighter, and the larger and more 

 niimiirous dark spots are more obsolete in their outline. 



The head of Montanus is narrower and much more arched transversely. 

 The snout is more truncate. The two series of teeth on each side the 

 parasphenoid bone come closer, so as to be almost in contact, without 

 the interval of S. ruber. 



The body and tail are more slender and elongated; the latter propor- 

 tionally considerably longer. There are IG costal furrows, excluding an 

 axillar one, instead of 15, as in S. ruber. 



There are 16 distinct costal grooves, excluding any in the axilla. 

 The tail shows similar furrows at first, but they soon become indistinct. 

 It is quadrate at the base, then gradually becomes more and more com- 

 l)ressed, with a sharp ridge towards the end, as in S. ruber. Its length 

 is nearly equal to the distance from the snout to the groin. 



The limbs are' not appreciably different from what has been described 

 in 8. ruber. 



The color of the type specimens, as preserved in alcohol, is a uniform 



