1110 The American Naturalist. [December, 
and existing families of Batrachia are known from the Miocene. But 
when Mr. Davison wishes to derive the immediate descent of Ceecilians 
from the Stegocephalia, he goes to an opposite extreme of antiquity, 
and, moreover, there is no resemblance whatever between the two 
groups. Even if the Cccilians possess a basisphenoid as he alleges, 
but which I greatly doubt, this character would constitute a ground of 
difference from the Stegocephalia, and not resemblance. 
Finally our author, in order to set forth his views of the phylogeny 
of the class Batrachia, copies bodily, p. 407, my diagram as published in 
the Batrachia of N. America, without credit, only introducing the two 
absurdities of deriving the Amphiumidex and the Ceeciliide from the 
Stegocephalia direct. 
Mr. Davision has, in fact, adduced some new reasons in support of 
the proposition which I was the. first to formulate, that Amphiuma is 
nearly related to the Ceeciliidee. So certainly have his researches with 
those of the Sarasins and Hay confirmed this view, that it is quite 
worth while to reéxamine the supposed ethmoid of the Ceecilians, and 
see whether there is not an agreement in this point also. 
At the close of the article the author states that Dr. Scott has pointed 
out parallelisms in evolution of different lines of Mammalia. Dr. 
Scott has never claimed that his observation was original with himself, 
and if Mr. Davison had asked the distinguished Professor of Princeton 
as to this, he would have learned where and by whom this fact of phy- 
logeny was first set forth. 
Finally, the plates attached to this paper are quite unworthy of the 
American Journal of Morphology.—E. D. Corr. 
Zoological News.—Those interested in the anatomy of the frog 
will find Gaupp’s account.of the hand and foot muscles of that animal 
(Anat. Anzeiger, Bd. XI, No.7, Oct., 1895) extremely valuable, and the 
illustrations which accompany it are very clear. No abstract is possi- 
ble. 
P. J. White adds* Hexanchus griseus to the list of Selachians (Noti- 
danus indicus) in which a median cartilage is inserted in the shoulder 
girdle. Like Haswell and Parker, he regards it as sternal in nature, 
and consisting of pre- and post-omosternal elements. 
3 Vitzon, Alex. N. Compte-Rend. Acad. des Sci., CX XI, 1895, p. 445. 
«Anat. Anz., XI, 222, 1895. 
