THE WEB OF ISLAND LIFE 183 



be the case when a large series were compared in the laboratory; 

 for this reason the new lizard did not merit the status of a new 

 species but was relegated to the position of subspecies. 



The classification of the new lizard did not interest me so 

 much as the fact that the rocks of Babylon were the dividing 

 line of the spheres of influence of the two types, so alike in 

 everything except color. They were obviously derived from the 

 same parent stock; and, although in the weeks that followed I 

 traversed every inch of the island, their ranges did not overlap 

 except in the last few miles of the circuit before reaching 

 Mathewtown. At the points of overlap I collected a number 

 of intergrading forms, specimens that were half maynardii and 

 half maynardii uni^onms^ as the new subspecies came to be 

 called. A line drawn from the rocks of Babylon to the last oc- 

 currence of the new lizard would divide Inagua exactly in half 

 at right angles to the "wind! Maynardii was a lizard of the lee, 

 uniformis a denizen of the windward side of the island. The 

 same line also divided Inagua in relation to its vegetation. The 

 lee vegetation was thick and tangled, at places completely im- 

 penetrable; the plants on the opposite half crouched low to 

 the rocks, were sparse and in places missing altogether. This is 

 a curious circumstance. It is, also, a yawning trap for a scientific 

 misstatement. 



Henry David Thoreau once declared that a trout in the 

 milk was circumstantial evidence. On the basis of circumstantial 

 evidence it is easy to jump to the conclusion that this new 

 lizard was a direct result of its windy environment. Because the 

 vegetation was stunted and because the scouring wind had 

 blasted life out of all but the most hardy, it would seem reason- 

 able to assume that these lizards had appropriated their drab 

 color because of some relationship to the wind, because perhaps 

 their food was different from that of their neighbors, or be- 

 cause they had suited their hue to a condition with which their 



