^°189l!''] PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 487 



Sceloporus scalaris from the regiou in question. On the other hand, 

 Professor Cope records '^seven si)eciiiieiis" received from San Die^jo, 

 Texas, as ^^Sceloponis f scalaris^'' (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mns., 188S, p. 307) 

 as if he was uncertain as to their beU)n«^ing- to this species, an uncer- 

 tainty which I am inclined to extend to all the alleijed si)ecimens of S. 

 smZam from soutli western Texas. That I am unable to express any 

 final opinion upon the San JJiego specimens is due to the fact that the 

 specimens, although stated to belong to the Museum, have not beeu 

 found in spite of an extended search. 



There are two more Texan specimens in the collection, viz, Xo. 11457, 

 collected by Mr. George B. Sennett in " Texas," presumably somewhere 

 on the lower Rio Grande between the mouth and Hidalgo whero Mr. 

 Sennett was collecting during April and May, 1877. The other si)eci- 

 meu is Ko. 411G, from " Redmond's Ranch " on the Rio Grande, the 

 same as Bellville, about 70 miles below Laredo. 



There remains one specimen which requires special mention on ac- 

 count of the uncertainty of its origin. It has a tin tag attached to it 

 uumbered L'SS2, which, if correct, would give it '"China, Nuevo Leon, 

 Mexico" for a locality, and Lieutenant Ccmch for a ci»lle .tor, but to 

 one of its legs is tied an original parchment label which reads, "-JI08, 

 Utah, December," and the record book gives the information that it 

 was "removed from No. 2877," a bottle containing numerous speci- 

 mens of Sc. gratiosns collected at Salt Lake, Utah, by Captain Stans- 

 bury. Several other "removals" took place at the same time, however, 

 and it is almost certain that both numbers are wrong. At any rate it 

 would not do to credit Utah with A'. variubHis on the strength of the 

 present specimen. 



In order to facilitate the identitication of this species, which has been 

 so singularly ovei looked within our territory, I may point out some of 

 the most salient characters b}' which it may be recognized. 



SccJoponis variabilis differs from all the species hitherto found within 

 the United States by having the scales of the sides of the body con- 

 siderably smaller than those of the back; a white half moon-sliai)ed 

 mark on the side above the insertion of the fore limb is present in both 

 sexes and is quite characteristic. The male, uiori over, is readily dis 

 tinguished by the Hank patches of a pink (in alcohol grayish) color, 

 whicli come very close together on the belly and are bordered by a 

 dark bluish line, the latter joining a large daik patch on the shoulder 

 behind the white sen)ilunar mark. Among the other ciiaracters the 

 following may be mentioned: Head-shields wrinkled; lateral scales 

 diiected obli(juely upwards; lemoial jxires about twelve on each side, 

 not meeting medially across the bt lly ; about filteen dorsal scales in a 

 head length; anterior frontal divided longitu<iinally. 



Sc. scalaris, on the other haiul, is easily distinguished by having the 

 series of femoral pores nearly meet across the belly ; the scales on the 

 sides are nearly as large as those of the back, and these are much larger 



