334 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. los 



ally there were six. The spedmens "collected" by Gen. Churchill 

 are two in number and are cataloged under USNM 3050, and desig- 

 nated as having been collected in ''Texas." Gambel's contribution 

 is now entered as follows: "Type/Cnemidophorus perplexus/' Calif"??/ 

 probably W. Texas/. Dr. W. Gambel/3060/1." Dr. Cochran (in 

 lit.) informs us that at Dr. L. Stejneger's suggestion she added in 

 her own hand the word "type," the two question marks after "Calif" 

 and the notation "probably W. Texas." These entries so closely 

 match the notation of Baird and Girard m their original description 

 of the species that there seems little doubt that they truly represent 

 the specimens in hand when the original description was made, even 

 though at that time the specimens were uncataloged and without 

 numbers. The taxonomic fate of Clark's and Churchill's specimens 

 will be mentioned later; it is Gambel's large specimen that is of im- 

 portance at the moment. 



The catalog entry of USNM 3060 was made on July 20, 1858, 

 probably by Baird himself (Cochran, in lit.). Between that time and 

 1893 it had presumably been selected by Cope as the type of perplexus, 

 for in 1900 he described a specimen which he designated in his de- 

 scription as the type, and this specimen is unquestionably USNM 

 3060. It is not until Burt (1931) published his studies on the teiid 

 lizards of the genus Cnemidophorus that a statement is finally made 

 in the synonymy of Cnemidophorus sexlineatus perplexus that the type 

 is USNM 3060. 



This action of Burt's constitutes a formal designation of a lectotype, 

 properly selected from the synt3rpes of Baird and Girard. According 

 to our interpretation of the proceedings of the 12th International 

 Congress of Zoology, Paris, 1948, and the 14th International Congress 

 of Zoology, Copenhagen, 1953, this action is final and the lectotype 

 of Cnemidophorus perplexus Baird and Girard is what is now USNM 

 3060. 



The type locality: Examination of the Clark material shows that 

 it is not Cnemidophorus perplexus but rather C. sacki gularis. Hence, 

 the type locality of Rio Pedro of the Rio Grande del Norte is invalid 

 for the former species. As will be seen, Gambel's specimens, including 

 the type, USNM 3060, could not have been collected in "W. Texas" 

 as suggested by Dr. Stejneger inasmuch as Gambel never visited this 

 part of the Southwest. Furthermore, the suggestion by several 

 authors that Gambel made the collections on his second journey to 

 California seems unlikely because of the northerly route followed and 

 certain terminal events associated with that trip. Therefore it is 

 necessary to reevaluate the actual type locality for Cnemidophorus 

 perplexus, as evidence permits. 



William Gambel was a young Philadelphia protege of the frontier 

 botanist Thomas Nuttall. After making several eastern collecting 



