308 BARBOUR: ZOOGEOGRAPHY. 



There can be no doubt but that the habits of Cricosaura are somewhat 

 similar to those of Xantusia and Lepidophyma. 



It has been customary to consider the members of this family as types 

 reminiscent of a fauna which has almost passed. The rarity of the individuals 

 of the various species has been brought forward as an argument that they are in 

 fact dying out. In view of the real abundance of the creatures when once their 

 hiding places become known, this argument ceases to be weighty. The scat- 

 tered ranges of the various forms, each narrowly circumscribed, and the structure 

 of the animals show that the group is, to be sure, an archaic one. The surviving 

 species seem, however, to have adapted themselves to a mode of life successful 

 under present conditions. Gundlach (Erpet. Cubana, 1880, p. 63) found all the 

 specimens known under stones near Cape Cruz, the southernmost point of the 

 island. This is all that is known of the habits of the species. 



All of the foregoing was written before I visited Cuba again during 1913. 

 This trip included a special, and somewhat arduous, excursion to Cabo Cruz. 

 Prof, de la Torre and I went together and he had with him Gundlach's manu- 

 script field notes which give in minute detail the exact places at each locality 

 visited where Gundlach's actual collecting was carried on. By means of this 

 I was able to go to what I believe was the exact spot where Gundlach got his 

 specimens and to find again this most interesting form. I only got one example 

 under a large stone about one hundred yards a little north of east from the light- 

 house. Here there is a small area which is sunken and where red earth occurs 

 with scattered fragments of the country rock of limestone. The surroundings 

 are sandy toward the point of the Cape and "diente perro" to the North and 

 East. Cacti and plants which are excessively thorny recall the habitat of Xan- 

 tusia on the mainland. 



The species is more active than I had expected to find it and two specimens 

 were unfortunately lost by Cubans who were helping look for it, as they escaped 

 into crevices in the outcropping limestone here eroded into spear points and knife 

 blade edges which ring like metal, as one walks over them and which makes this 

 "diente-perro" country anathema to all Cubans. 



Centropyx intermedius Gray. 



Gray, Griffiths Cuvier's Animal kingdom, 1830, 9, Syn. icptil., p. 31. Boulenger, Cut. lizards Brit, 

 mus., 1885, 2, p. 340. 



Cope first recorded this species from Barbados; and I cannot find the slight- 

 est difference between specimens from Barbados and the description of main- 



