Reptiles of Massachusetts. 61 
the Society, assured me he had seen the speci- 
men in Philadelphia, originally described by Har- 
lan, and that it was the same species that I 
had supposed new. How Harlan could have 
made such a description as he has from this 
species, it is difficult to imagine. He must 
have described a specimen preserved in spirits, 
else he could not have seen “a row of whitish 
colored oblong spots on each side of the dorsal 
line;?" but even alcohol could not produce “a 
whitish dorsal line," where no defined line existed, 
of any color, in life. Dr. Holbrook's second volume 
of his “ North American. Herpetology,” containing 
a description of the * S. dorsalis," has, within a 
few months, issued from the press. Were I governed 
by his description, which makes no mention of the 
innumerable black dots above, which cover its en- 
tire upper a well as under surface in every indi- 
vidual of whatever age I have met with; or his 
plate, which corresponds with it, I might be in- 
duced to disbelieve the identity of our species; but 
preferring to think the omission may have been. 
accidental, I would yield my doubts to the convic- 
tion of that distinguished herpetologist. 
i 
:1 
S. picta. Harlan. The painted Salamander. 
Journal Academy Nat. Sciences, vol. v. p. 136. 
Harlan’s Med. and Phys. Res. p. 98. 
I have never met with this species ; but Dr. Pick- 
ering, of Philadelphia, informed me, some time since, 
