HERPETOLOGY OF JAPAN. 225 



Genus CRYPTOBLEPH ARUS " Wiegmann. 



1834. Cryptoblepharus Wiegmann, Herpet. Mex., p. 12 (tyi)e, Ablepharus poecilo- 

 pleurus). 



Having recently obtained specimens of the type species of the 

 genus Ablepharus, I have convinced myself that it is not congeneric 

 with the type of Cryptohlepharns.^ The arrangement of the supra- 

 oculars in the former is so radically different from that of the latter 

 that even if there were no other distinction I should hesitate to place 

 them in the same genus. 



In the key to the genera (p. 193) this genus is said to have "no mov- 

 able lower eyelid." This expression does not mean that the lower eyelid 

 is absent. On the contrary , it is there, but not movable, having coalesced 

 with the rudimentary upper lid. What appears to be the exposed eye 

 itself is only the very large transparent disk of the lower eyelid. 



CRYPTOBLEPHARUS BOUTONII ' NIGROPUNCTATUS^ (Hallowell). 



1860. Ablepharus mgropwiictatus Hallowell, Proc. Phila. Acad., 1860, p. 489 

 (type-locality, Port Lloyd, Bonin Islands; Rodgers, collector). 



With the number of scale rows of a large series of Hawaiian "snake- 

 eyed skinks" varying between 28 and 30, 1 can not well refer the ten 

 Bonin Island specimens with 24 and 26 scale rows to the same sub- 

 species, notwithstanding the fact that I find them to agree sub- 

 stantially as to coloration. With the present material insufficient 

 to work out an intelligent and comprehensive review of the various 

 forms clustering around C. boutonii, it is safer to keep the groups 

 separate nomenclaturally. How essential it is to follow this rule is 

 shown by Boulenger's recent notes under Ablepharus boutonii.^ It is 

 even a question with me whether the Bonin Island form should not 

 be designated binominally on account of the apparently constant 

 presence of a distinct postnasal. The occasional occurrence of such a 

 shield in Hawaiian specimens,^ however, makes it safer to adhere to 

 the provisionally accepted nomenclature of trinominals for this group 

 of forms. 



Hallowell's type of Ablepharus nigropunctatus appears to be lost. 

 It was obtained at Port Lloyd, on Peel Island (Chichishima), of the 

 middle or Beechey Group, Bonin Archipelago, consequentl}^ from the 

 same locaHty from which came U.S.N.M. Nos. 23897-8 and 23900, 



"From KpvTtro^, hidden; fiXecpapov, eyelid. 



& See Stejneger, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XXI, no. 1174, 1899, p. 810. 



C1831. Scinciis boutonii Desjardin, Ann. Sci. Nat. (1), XXII (p. 298) (tj-pe-local- 

 ity. Island of Mauritius; types in Paris Mus.). Named for liouis Bouton, a French 

 botanist. 



d Spotted with black. 



e Ann. Mus. Civ. Geneva (2), XVIII, 1898, pp. 702 and 719. 



/See Stejneger, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XXI, No. 1174, 1899, p. 811. 



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