296 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



Anolis opalinus Gosse. 



Gosse, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 1850, ser. 2, 6, p. 345. 



This species is apparently confined to the western part of the island. The 

 United States National Museum has two specimens from Moneague. Gosse's 

 specimens came from about Bluefields. There are fifteen from Mandeville at 

 hand. Stejneger felt some doubt as to whether these really represented Gosse's 

 A opalinus because, of the small numbers in the collections. Gosse states that 

 this and A. iodurus are the commonest lizards in the parishes of St. Elizabeth and 

 Westmoreland. Now these parishes are not very thickly populated and contain 

 no large towns, consequently I presume that the mongoose has had an even freer 

 hand thereabouts than elsewhere. As for the abundance of the species under 

 discussion about Mandeville, I can say that undoubtedly twenty-five specimens 

 could be taken in any walk of a couple of hours, though it must be admitted 

 that here again the lizards are rarer a little distance out of town than near it or 

 even in the town itself. 



This species is easily distinguished in life. The green phase does not show a 

 solid color, but strong, well-marked vermiculations of a light color — almost 

 white. Along each side there is generally a broad light band. In the brown 

 condition the markings on the body are as evident ; the tail is usually browu. 

 The smooth plate-like ventral scales which show no tendency to imbricate and 

 which are rather irregular in form and size, distinguish spirit specimens from 

 A. iodurus. In life the almost always present white lateral stripe serves as a 

 field mark for distinction from the solid green-bodied and sky-blue-tailed A. 

 iodurus. In the former species the dewlap is different from that of the latter. 

 It is pink with usually a light, almost white, edge. 

 Also confined to Jamaica. 



Anolis grahamii Gray. 

 Gray, Cat. Lizards Brit. Mus., 1845, p. 247. 



Though in the field this lizard is practically impossible to distinguish from the 

 preceding species of small green lizard, it is very easily separated when the speci- 

 men is in hand. The ventrals are inclined to imbricate and have a heavy swollen 

 keel. At Bath, Port Antonio, and about Mandeville we took a considerable series 

 of this species, and the variation in color was remarkable. Some were green with 

 the tail hardly less blue than those so characteristic of A. iodurus, while others 

 were dotted and marbled with the light color on a dark dull field identical with A. 

 opalinus, except that the white lateral stripe was never a wide band but only 

 suggested. This species represents beyond doubt what Cope (Proc. Acad . Nat. 

 Sci.,Phila., 1894) called Anolis flabellatus. Port Antonio was the type locality 

 for this synonymous form. Generally speaking, this lizard seemed rarer than 

 either of the former two. 



Confined to Jamaica. 



