376 The American Naturalist. [April, 
Witmer Stone shows (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, ase 
that Sharpe has mistaken Verreaux’s Pratincola salax, and t it is 
identical with P. sydi//a Linne. P. axillaris Shelly may be a ate 
of the same. 
Mammals.—Ryder (Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., XXVI., 1889) seeks 
the phylogeny of the mammalian sweat gland in the epidermal glands of 
the Batrachia, C. Hart Merriam (Worth American Fauna, No. 1; pub- 
ished by the U. S. Department of Agriculture) presents a revision of the 
North American pocket mice. With abundant material, he has recog- 
nized eighteen species, but has united the two genera Perognathus 
and Cricetodipus. Many changes in synonymy are noticeable. In a 
second paper (l. c., No. 2) the same author describes fourteen new 
species of mammals from North America, arranged in the genera 
Onychomys, Arctomys, Lagomys, Spermophilus, Tamias, Nyctiono- 
mus, and Phenacomys (nov.). 
Beddard (Proc. Zodl. Soc., London, 1889) describes the visceral , 
anatomy and brains of the American tapir. He concludes that the 
American species is distinguished from the Indian by the absence of 
well marked valvulz conniventes, the presence of a moderator band in 
the heart, the shape of the glans penis, and a more elongate czcum 
sacculated by four bands. The cerebral convolutions are simpler in 
Tapirus than in other living Perissodactyles. 
Dr. R. W. Shufeldt describes (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia, 
1889) the skull in an embryonic specimen of the California wood-rat, 
Neotoma fuscipes. 
Dr. Frank C. Baker describes (l. c.) the habits of the recently dis- 
covered round-tailed muskrat, Neofiber aileni True. 
EMBRYOLOGY. 
The Placentation of the Hedge-hog (Erinaceus europaeus), 
and the Phylogeny of the Placenta.!—Prof. A. A. W. Hubrecht 
has placed embryological students under great obligations to him for 
this admirable work upon the development of the hedge-hog. There 
is room, however, for very wide difference of opinion as to the signifi- 
cance of the facts recorded. While no one will probably be disposed 
1 Quar. Jour. Mic. Sci., XXX., Pt. 3, 1889, pp. 283-404. Plates XV.-XXVII. 
