BARBOUR : NOTES ON THE HERPETOLOGY OF JAMAICA. 285 



Suess makes a suggestion as to its former westward prolongation. Pre- 

 cisely at the point, he says, when the arcuate continuation of this chain 

 might be expected to meet the principal chains of South America, lie the 

 volcanic Galapagos Islands." 



Dr. Scharff (Joe. cit., p. 523) uses Peripatus to illustrate an archaic 

 group having a remarkable discontinuous distribution. 



The writer has no suggestion to offer on the age of the various Antil- 

 lean connections assumed. Antillea must have persisted until Central 

 America had some such shape as it has at present. For Cretaceous con- 

 nections such as suggested by Arldt connecting northern South America 

 with western Mexico, would not explain present distributions and would, 

 of course, be too early to have bearing on many existing types. One 

 fact can be clearly proved by the land animals of the islands, namely, 

 that land connections have existed in spite of the claim of many geolo- 

 gists of the " permanence of the continents in their present form," and of 

 others who with Dr. Hill believe that the Antilles have always existed 

 in their present form. Fortuitous distribution has played practically no 

 part in providing the Antilles with a fauna. 



Vertical Distribution. 



The hills of Jamaica rise at Blue Mountain Peak to a height of 7423 

 feet, ajid in several places are over 5000 feet. Nothing, however, seems 

 especially noteworthy regarding the vertical distribution of species. A' 

 considerable number of notes bearing on this topic are introduced in 

 their appropriate places. 



For the benefit of lay visitors to the island it may be said that not a 

 single venomous reptile occurs on the island, in spite of the statements 

 of the natives. 



Species Doubtfully Recorded. 



The following forms reported as from Jamaica are without doubt 

 wrongly labeled as to locality : 



PhyUodactylus ventralis O'Shaughnessy. The type of this gecko was 

 said to have come from Jamaica. Boulenger questioned the accuracy 

 of this locality in "Catalogue of Lizards," 1885, 1, p. 80. The species is a 

 Central American one. 



Diploglosms monotropis Wiegmann. A specimen of this species is in 

 the British Museum, and served Gray as the type of his Tiliqua jamai- 

 censis (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 1839, ser. 1, 2, p. 293). Boulenger (Joe. cit., 



