2656 Reptiles. 



own L. palmipes, for he had not long before informed me that he had 

 recently received some specimens of it ; nor did I know that he had 

 changed his opinion with respect to his Rana Scotica, of which I had 

 the pleasure of sending him a number : at the same lime I entertained 

 little doubt that on seeing a series of them he would pronounce them 

 to be a variety ; for I had been unable to detect any specific difference, 

 although I had no undoubted common frogs at hand wherewith to 

 compare them. In the case of these two amphibians, Mr. Bell has 

 avoided the necessity of giving further characters, by very properly 

 cutting out the species altogether ; but Triton Bibronii he still retains, 

 without one word additional to the description in the first edition. 

 The specific character is given as follows : " The same as T. cristatus, 

 excepting that the upper lip is perfectly straight, meeting the lower 

 and not overhanging it. The skin, and particularly that of the head, 

 much more rugous and more strongly tuberculated. Colour darker." 

 It is afterwards said, " The tubercle at the base of the inner toe on 

 each foot is much smaller, and in some cases scarcely perceptible." 

 Now there appears nothing in this description which will distinguish 

 the Triton Bibronii from specimens of Triton cristatus found under 

 stones or in other situations removed from water, or which have not 

 long returned to the ponds in which they breed. It is the more re- 

 markable that Mr. Bell should not recognize this fact, as he has con- 

 fessed the error into which he fell with respect to L. punctatus, a 

 species in his former edition distinguished from his L. palmipes by 

 the very same character of the straight lip, so that the vignette which 

 formerly was intended to point out the distinction between L. punc- 

 tatus and L. palmipes now serves to show the seasonal appearances 

 of the first species. This vignette, so similar to the one devoted to 

 the heads of T. Bibronii and T. cristatus, must have suggested to our 

 author the probability of a similar error in both cases. But we respect 

 the feeling which may have prevented him from withdrawing a species 

 whose name he had " chosen as a proper compliment to the first of 

 erpetologists, and one of the most amiable of men." He acknowledges 

 that with respect to L. punctatus and L. palmipes he was " led into 

 error, by trusting that the accuracy of his lamented friend Bibron was 

 absolutely infallible ; " but that he should announce at the same time 

 a second error of no less importance, from the same source, would 

 have been too much for us to expect: nevertheless, it appears that 

 Mr. Bell corrected the judgment of M. Bibron in this matter. M. 

 Bibron declared that a bottled specimen which he found in the col- 

 lection of the Zoological Society was T. marmoratus of Latreille : 



