736 : General Notes. (August, 
the end of its nose with its tongue like a dog. Respiration is : 
carried on by means of both the intercostal and hyoid muscles.— k 
E. D. Cope. 
THE SENSE ORGAN IN THE PINEAL GLranp.—The suggestion of s 
Ahlborn and Rabl. Ruckard that the pineal gland is the remnant : 
of some organ of special sense present in some primitive Verte- 
brata,! has received confirmation from the studies of Von Graaf 
and Spencer. The former finds a rudimental organ of sense in 
‘this part of the brain of the slowworm-lizard (Anguis fragilis), 
and the latter, who works in the biological laboratory of the 
University of Oxford, finds a similar organ in the Sphenodon 
punctatus. The organ includes a lense, and is of the invertebrate 
type, 2. e., the rods are turned towards the light and not away 
from it. 
These observations render it probable that certain extinct re- 
n lations of Sphenodon, the saurians of the family Diadectidæ (order 
Theromorpha) of the Permian epoch of North America, had this 
pineal sense-organ highly developed. The frontopariétal fon- 
tanelle is larger than in any other reptiles, and the cast of the 
surrounding regions shows various peculiarities (see Proc. Amer. 
PHIL Soc., 1885, p. 236). 
THE VERTEBRÆ OF SPHENODON.—In the May number of the 
American NATURALIST (p. 466) Dr. G. Baur mentions that “no- 
: body will find the separate part of ossification of the prezyg- 
apophyses in the cervical vertebrae of Sphenodon,” the figures of | 
which I gave in my work, Fauna der Gaskohle, Tab. 70. 
To facilitate the understanding of my drawing, I gave the 
exact dimensions of the object carefully drawn with the camera 
lucida. The seven cervical vertebrae are 27™™ long, and on the 
= third, fourth and fifth the ossification on the tip of the prezyg* 
_ pophysis? is clearly seen. ete 
= The object is in the zoological cabinet of the Boh. University 
~ at Prague, and can be shown to any scientific man. 
In regard to the quéstion whether that is an equivalent of the 
~ pleurocentrum or not, I gave on p. 52 my opinion with caution 
_ asa probable way to explain the difficult question: What de 
_ become of the pleurocentrum in Sphenodon ?—Dr. Anton Fritsch, 
_ Prague, Bohemia, Fune, 1886. 
: as to the occurrence of this reptile at or near its northern i 
of distribution. We have been told that rattlesnakes are still o¢ 
casionally killed in Connecticut near the Rhode Island border. 
: 1See on atk the possible monoculous character of Bothriolepis canadensis» 
ATURALIST, 1885, p. 291. 
5 
