THE HERPETOLOGY OF HISPANIOLA 297 



face of thigh covered with five or six rows of flat scales; two tibial 

 rows, the external row composed of four scales, the second and third 

 very large ; no enlarged postanals ; a pair of enlarged plates at the ante- 

 rior border of the anus and two single median scales in front of them, 

 the anterior the smaller; 25 scales in the fifteenth verticil of the tail. 

 The hind leg being adpressed, the fourth toe reaches to the anterior 

 edge of the tympanum. Hands and feet long and slender, the small 

 "combs" very evident on the toes; fourth toe with 40 lamellae beneath 

 it; fifth toe longer than first. Tail (reproduced) slender, long, almost 

 square in section in its proximal half; the scales obliquely set, 

 strongly keeled above, becoming keeled to smooth on the sides, 

 smooth below. 



"Dimensions. — Head and body, 100 mm. ; tail (reproduced), 199 mm. 



"Coloration in alcohol. — Ground color lilac-gray on the back, 

 washed with fawn color on the head and turning to pale blue and 

 glaucous-blue on the tail ; a black dorso-lateral band beginning behind 

 the eyes, widening greatly on the body and continuing on the tail; 

 this black band edged below by a narrow light area which becomes a 

 definite white stripe in the groin and breaks up on the anterior sur- 

 face of the femur into a number of light spots but continues down 

 the tail as a definite stripe; lower half of loreal, labials and throat 

 orange-buff lightening to buff-yellow on the center of the throat ; rest 

 of under surfaces of body and limbs glaucous-blue suffused anteriorly 

 with cream color; tail azure blue beneath, with a black stripe on each 

 side beginning a short distance behind the anus and fading out 

 before the middle of the tail is reached. 



"Relationships. — The new species at once suggests Ameiva barbouri 

 in its striking coloration, and this relationship is fully borne out by 

 details of scalation. They both have eight longitudinal rows of 

 ventral plates (in my original diagnosis of Ameiva barbouri, there 

 were said to be ten rows, but the number is afterward correctly stated 

 in the complete description), the caudal scales are oblique and keeled, 

 and both have three large supraoculars. The new species differs 

 from barbouri in having a longer fourth toe, a greater number of 

 scales around the tail, a wider black dorso-lateral band, and in being 

 somewhat larger in size." 



Family AMPHISBAENIDAE 



Genus AMPHISBAENA Linnaeus 



1758. Am-phisbaena Linnaeus, Systema naturae, ed. 10, vol. 1, p. 229 (type 

 A. fuliginosa) . 



Like all secretive and burrowing creatures, the ground lizards of 

 this group are not likely to come to the notice of any naturalist not 

 specially intent upon searching for them. Turning over rocks and 



226S49— 41 20 



