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Show 342 APPENDIX C.- REPTILES. As these pages were passing through the press, we received the numbers iv. and v. for 1850, and ii. and iii. for 1851, of the " Archiv fur Naturgeschichte." The present editor of that periodical, Dr. Troschel, describes, in the fourth number for 1850, a new saurian genus, under the name of Cophosaurus, a species of which was brought to Germany by the geologist, Ferd. Roemer, who visited Texas some years ago. Having the same saurian in our possession, collected in the same locality, as a second but undescribed species of our genus Holbrookia, we could readily identify the genus Cophosaurus. It is to be regretted that the description of our genus Holbrookia which reached Germany in the summer of 1851, that is before the publication of the number iv. of the Archiv. fur Naturgeschichte for 1850, has been overlooked by this able German zoologist. The absence of auditory apertures, " aures esterase nullae," which is the most striking character of our genus, would have struck Dr. Troschel, had he been aware of our description in the Proceedings of the American Association for the Advance of Science, fourth meeting, held at New Haven, in August, 1850. As it may hereafter be questioned which of these generic names has the priority, inasmuch as the volume in which Cophosawus is published bears the date of 1850, we deem it proper to call attention to the fact that its publication took place in 1852. Even at the date at which we write these lines, ( April, 1852), the year 1850 of the Archiv. f iir Naturgeschichte has not been completed. This fact shows how an author may be deprived of the fruit of his labours by an anachronism of this kind. HOLBROOKIA MACULATA, Girard. PL. VI. FIG. 1- 3. Sjn. Holbrookia maculata, QIBAUD, Proo. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sc, IV. ( 1850), 1861, 201. SPEC, CHAR.- Tail about the length of the trunk. Head subcircular, slightly conical in front. Pectoral fold bordered with large scales. The general form of this species is rather thick and short than elongated, especially in the female: the young and the males are more slender. The body is subcylindrical, the tail conical and very stout at its origin, tapering however suddenly away. The entire length is between three and four inches, as shown by the |