614 General Notes. [June, 
Genera. Species, 
6 15 
Urodela 
Batrachia Gymnophiona........... 4 7 120 
PUR : cabs pos cake dba tes Oaks bee eee red vey 31 98 
AT a fo ee ids sa ok be eae ee wae: j ; 
a Testudinata II 2 
Reptilia | AEI Re OER Bo ener manera 42 134 f 489 
| Ophidia 92 274 
brought home by Mr. J. 
Mt. Kenia and Victoria Nyanza. Mr. Thomson also brought 
back a frontlet of A. co#iz, Thomson’s gazelle is marked with a 
distinct black lateral band, which is absent in the allied G. grantit, 
with which it does not mingle. Mr. Caldwell writes that Platy- 
pus embryos are quite easy to get and he cannot understand why 
they were not obtained before. He has thirty blacks with him and 
they have found 500 Echidna in six weeks. From a study of 
the cerebral convolutions of the Carnivora and Pinnepedia, 
Professor St. Geo. Mivart gives additional reasons for the three- 
fold division of the forms into Cynoidea, AZluroidea and Arc- 
toidea., In a paper recently read before the Linnean Society, he 
called attention to the universal tendency among the Arctoidea to 
the definition of a distinct and conspicuous lozenge-shaped patch 
of brain substance defined by the crucial and pre-crucial sulci. 
This condition does not occur in any non-Arctoid carnivore, but 
is found in Otaria gillespit and Phoca vitulina, where it is small and 
much hidden. He adduced this fact as an important argument in 
favor of the view that the Pinnipedia were evolved from some 
Arctoid, probably Ursine, form of land carnivore. The brains of 
` Naudinia, Galidia, Crytoprocta, Bassaricyon, Mellivora, Galictis 
and Grisonia, were for the first time described in detail. The 
Viverrina, judged by the cerebral characters, formed a very dis- 
tinct group among the Æluroids. 
EMBRYOLOGY.! 
On THE FORMATION OF THE EMBRYONIC AXIS OF THE TELEOS- 
TEAN EMBRYO BY THE CONCRESCENCE OF THE RIM OF THE BLASTO- 
DERM.—During the season of 1881, I had an opportunity to study 
part of the developmental: history of E/acate canadus at Cherry- 
stone, Virginia. But unfortunately the lot of ova investigated by 
me did not develop to the period of hatching, but only passed a 
little beyond the stage when the blastoderm closes. “As I have 
elsewhere to the very remarkable condition of affairs ob- 
_ served by me just previous to the closure of the blastoderm in 
~ this species, and not being likely to soon again have an opportu- 
~ nity to study the same form, I will now describe and figure what 
` Edited by JoHN A, RYDER, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. 
