No. 6. — A Revision of the Lizards of the genus Ameiva. 

 By Thomas Barbour and G, Kingsley Noble. 



INTRODUCTION. 



This paper is based almost wholly upon the collection in the Mu- 

 seum of Comparative Zoology; we have, however, had loaned for 

 study some important specimens from other institutions and wish to 

 thank Dr. Leonhard Stejneger and the U. S. National Museum, 

 Henry W. Fowler Esq., and the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia, as well as Dr. A. G. Ruthven and the Zoological Museum 

 of the University of Michigan, for valuable aid. From the two latter 

 institutions we have received important specimens in loan or exchange; 

 from Dr. Stejneger permission to study in Washington the types of 

 Ameiva polops and Ameiva tohagana, as well as complete sets of photo- 

 graphs and notes of these important specimens for study in Cambridge. 



Citations of original descriptions have been omitted, also synonyms, 

 except where these have been changed or added to. Both have already 

 been adequately given in Boulenger's Catalogue of Lizards in the 

 British Museum, 2, with later changes in Barbour's 'West Indian 

 Herpetology,' Mem. M. C. Z., 44, no. 2. 



Some characters, such as the entry of granules between the gulars 

 and the extent to which they may do so, have been found to be vari- 

 able and hence have been omitted in drawing up the descriptions. 

 So far as possible all characters which have been found to be really 

 diagnostic have been included. Special attention is called to the fact 

 that, making allowance for the variation connected with age or sex, 

 color-pattern has been found to be of excellent taxonomic value. This 

 statement is made upon the basis of the study of the very extensive 

 series of some races such as A. ameiva praesignis and A. ameiva ameiva. 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



The genus Ameiva, because it ranges widely through the West 

 Indies, Central and South America, is an excellent subject for careful 

 zoogeographic study. Almost every one of the Antilles, which has 

 been carefully collected, has been found to support a peculiar species, 



