sirjnriin — .1 New Snapping Turtle and a New Lizard. '.>! 



shielded part of head; lateral scales directed upwards and backwards, 

 slightly smaller than dorsals; ventral scales smooth, notched behind; 

 scales on throat and foreneck slightly smaller than ventrals, those on side 

 of latter mucronate and notched; adpressed hind limb reaches center of 

 eye; tibia equals shielded part of head; distance between base of fifth toe 

 and extremity of fourth, without claw, nearly equals distance between 

 nostril and arm; 17-18 femoral pores; caudal scales not much larger than 

 dorsals; two enlarged postanal scales. 



Color (in alcohol) above olive gray, slightly paler towards the sides, 

 with two series of oblique, nearly linear, blackish spots equidistant from 

 each other and from a strongly denned, broad, seal-brown lateral band 

 which extends from middle of neck to base of tail ; on top and sides of 

 head some indistinct, narrow blackish lines; on sides of body below the 

 dark band an indistinct pale band, below which an equally indistinct 

 dusky band between axilla and groin; underside of body pale greenish 

 white, on each side with a black-edged cobalt-blue patch ; throat and 

 foreneck black with a narrow whitish line down the middle, and a 

 cobalt-blue patch on each side. 



Dimensions. — Total length, 108 mm, ; tip of snout to vent, 43 mm. ; tip 

 of snout to ear, 11 mm.; shielded part of head, 11 mm.; fourth toe, 

 without claw, from base of fifth, 15 mm.; nostril to arm, 15.5 mm.; 

 tibia, 11 mm. 



Variation. — As usual in this genus, there is considerable variation in 

 the head-shields. In some specimens the frontal is undivided and in 

 others the anterior fronto-parietals are fused, thus separating frontal 

 from interparietal. The type is apparently abnormal in having the large 

 third supraocular in contact with the anterior fronto-parietal, as the 

 semicircular series of scales in the other specimens is uninterrupted. 



The full-grown female appears to be somewhat larger and stouter than 

 the male, though the relative length of the fourth toe remains the same. 

 Thus in an adult female from Georgiana, Fla., U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 

 11997, measuring 55 mm. from snout to vent, the length from snout to 

 ear is 12, and from base of fifth toe to tip of fourth toe, without claw, 

 19 mm. 



The coloration varies to some extent but not excessively so. The lateral 

 stripes are often more conspicuous and better defined than in the type. 

 The dorsal spots may be entirely absent, but in females and young they 

 are often better developed and in the latter showing the regular pattern 

 of blackish, interrupted and more or less zigzaggy cross-bars bordered 

 with whitish behind. In the female and young the blue throat patches 

 are present. In most of the adult males the median white line on the 

 throat is broader and more conspicuous than in the type; in others it is 

 entirely obliterated. 



Remarks. — The above diagnosis, as will be noticed, if applied to Boulen- 

 ger's synopsis of the species (Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1897, p. 475) leads 

 directly to his Sceloporus serrifer (Cat. Liz. Brit. Mus., vol. 2, 1885, p. 

 221). I say purposely "his" S. serrifer, because the characters given, 



