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Show 720 THE SECRETARY ON ADDITIONS TO THE MENAGERIE. [Dec. 19, collection. Mr. Garman writes to me as follows concerning this collection :- " I ship by steamer leaving Boston, October 21, a box containing 6 Holbrookia maculata, 5 Sceloporus undulatus, var., 8 Phrynosoma, douglasii, 3 Pityophis sayi, 3 Crotalus confluentus, and 1 Eutania parietalis, from South-western Dakota ; and 1 Cistudo virginea from N.E. Massachusetts. " The Holbrookia is common in certain localities in South-western Dakota and North-western Nebraska. It is found on dry sandy flits and hills of the Uplands. " Sceloporus is found in the same section, but generally along grassy banks on the edges of gullies, in situations more moist than those chosen by the preceding. " Phrynosoma was numerously represented here and there in restricted localities near Sceloporus and Holbrookia. Most often it was found on the sunny slopes along depressions that had been water-courses in the spring. Like the Holbrookia, they choose the hottest and dustiest places they can find. Their food in August consisted principally of ants and Coleoptera. " Pityophis sayi, the ' Bull Snake,' is a common Serpent among the sand-hills of Western Nebraska. " Crotalus confluentus was common in the Mauvaises Terres, but rare in the sand-hills. Residents asserted that they did not occur there ; but the discovery of three specimens afterwards proved these assertions to be inaccurate. "Eutania parietalis is the common Water-Snake of the Dakota bad lands. They were so tame as to take fish from our sides when we were fishing, and would not let go even when the fish was taken in hand and shaken vigorously. Box Turtles are rarely met with so far north, though they have been taken in Maine." The following species in Mr. Garman's collection are new to us :- Holbrookia maculata, Sceloporus g arm ani, sp. nov. * Phrynosoma douglassii, Tropidonotus sir talis2. 2. An Isabelline Lynx (Felis isabellina, Blyth 3), presented by Capt. Baldock, R.A., and received November 23. Capt. Baldock, writing from Calcutta on the 30th of September, states that the Lynx was then some two or three months old, and had been obtained at Astor in Ballistan, about 100 miles north of Cashmere, from a villager. 1 Vide infra, p. 761, Pl. LVI. 2 Eutania parietalis of Mr. Garman. 9 Mr. Elliot unites the Lynx of Tibet and tbe adjoining districts to F. lynx of Europe. But I think it rather doubtful whether this is correct, and prefer to leave it for the present under Blyth's designation (J. A. S. B. xvi. pt 2 p. 1178, et P. Z. S. 1863, p. 186). |