
742 The American Naturalist. [August, 
from the stump at the plane of section would be directed downwards 
instead of upwards, as before. In other words, the direction of the 
plane of section in these cases of the mutiliation of tadpole’s tails 
determined the direction of the axis of the finally completed and 
restored tails.—J. A. R.] 
Snakes in Banana Bunches.—Since the notices published on 
this subject in the NATURALIST (1890, Aug. and Oct., p. 968) three other 
instances have come under my notice. Prof. J. Lindahl, of Spring- 
field, obtained from a fruit dealer in Chicagd’a specimen of the harm- 
less dipsadine snake, S14on annulatum Linn., which he obtained from a 
bunch of bananas. Wm. Cherrie, of San José, Costa Rica, informs 
me that as many as six men were killed during 1890 by the bites of a 
venomous snake which lives in the banana bunches, which they load on 
vessels at the port of Limon on the Caribbean Sea. From figures and 
descriptions Mr. Cherrie recognizes the species to be the Z: elesuraspts 
schlegelit Berth., which abounds in Costa Rica. It has the prehensile 
habit fully as well developed as in the Boidz, which have been found 
in the like situation. The Philadelphia Zoological Garden has received 
a specimen of a small boa, the Ungualia pardalis, which was taken 
rom a banana bunch from Jamaica. The list of banana-dwelling 
snakes now includes five species,—viz., three boas, one harmless colu- 
brine snake, and one venomous species allied to the copperhead.— 
E. D. Corr, 
Description of a New Jumping Mouse from Nova Scotia 
and New Brunswick.—But one species of Zapus has been recog- 
nized by recent writers on North American Mammalogy, hence it was 
with much interest that I examined three specimens taken at Resti- 
gouche, N. B., during the summer of 1880, by Mr. E. A. Bangs, of 
Boston, who recently sent me the skins for determination, saying that 
he had always considered them different from the animal found in 
Massachusetts. The mice were collected on the banks of a river in 
the depths of the forest, and were very difficult to procure, as they 
could not be induced to enter any kind of a trap, and it was necessary 
to shoot all the specimens taken. About half a dozen skins were 
obtained, all but three of which were subsequently destroyed by insects. 
These three specimens represent a species evidently distinct from Zapus 
Audsonius, and may be named and characterized as follows: 
ZAPUS INSIGNIS, sp. nov.—Meriones labradorius Dawson, Edinb. N. 
-= Phil. Journ., III., January, 1856, 2, not of Richardson and Sabine. 
Sp. ch.—Size and color about as in Zapus hudsonius, from New 
PREITY Be PES) I meer maemo 




