124 AMPHIBIA—SALAMANDRIDA. 
f. Dorsal band yellowish; dots brown; toes short; body dirty white below; ex- 
tralimital; New York, Pennsylvania to Georgia. . . P. OCHROPHAUS. 
** PLETHODON ERYTHRONOTUS Green. 
The Red=-Backed Salamander. 
Salamandra erythronota, GREEN, STORER, DEKAy, HoLBRook, HARLAN. 
Salamandra agilis, SAGER. 
Plethedon cinereum, TSCHUDI. 
Amblystoma erythronotum, GRAY. 
Saurophis, FITZINGER. 
Spelerpes erythronotus, KENNICOTT. 
Plethodon cinereus, COPE. 
Color upon the sides cinereous; dorsal stripe extending from the occiput 
te the extremity of the tail of deep or light red; head brown above; lower 
\ jaw and gular region whitish, ventral part of the body light, but not as 
|) much so as the throat and chin; sides in alcohol sometimes reddish brown, 
I fi! ( grooves sixteen to nineteen ; caudal furrows about twenty; cervical fold 
Fale He indistinct, its place represented by a white line ; nostrils laterally situated ; 
|) | length, 3} inches; tail, 12inches; head to cervical fold, 9-16 inch; width of 
head, 7-32 inch. 
Habitat, Neva Scotia, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, 
South Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan, as far as the northern shore 
of Lake Superior. | 
Hig. 5—Ple- 
thodon ery- : 
nous,  wery common. 
mouth open. 
Haldeman j states that, while Herpetologists have supposed that P. 
erythronotus and cinereus are different sexes of the same species, from their 
having been so often found associated together, yet he, asa result of careful 
examination, came to the conclusion they were not. Jour cinereus 
opened by him contained gravid ovaries, and hence were females ; on the 
other, hand, two erythronotus contained only seminal matter and sperma- 
tozoa, imperfectly developed. Two others were found, however, with 
gravid ovaries, hence we have of the erythronotus both male and female. 
Prof. Green, however, concluded, after careful revision, that the cinereus 
was probably only an aged individual, in which the dorsal stripe had 
become obsolete, 
The Red-backed Salamander is the first of this group seen in spring, 
having been observed in the middle of April. I found them 
near Vassar Collece, in New York State, on April 6, 1878. It oc- 
* Proc. Acad. Mat. Set. Phil. 1874, page 3i. 
+ Cepe recognizes three sub-species, erythronotus, cinereus, and dorsalis. 
