46 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM 



VOL. Gl) 



rangenient has nothing 

 in common with the reg- 

 ular two azygous post- 

 mentals in the E. chi- 

 nensis group. E. xan- 

 thi^ judging from Guen- 

 ther's description, belongs 

 to a different group, 

 with dorsal scales nor- 

 mally broader than the 

 laterals and ventrals. 

 Guenther himself com- 

 pares his species, of 

 which originally he had 

 four specimens, with E. 

 skiltonianus^ from Cali- 

 fornia, from which he 

 says it is barely distin- 

 guishable " by a some- 

 Avhat different coloration 

 and by the postfrontals 

 [i. e. prefrontals] being 

 widely separated from 

 each other, while they are 

 more or less in contact in 

 the American form," but 

 apart from the fact that 

 the latter character is 

 worthless on account of 

 its variability, I think it 

 probable that Eumeces 

 xanthi is closer to E. 

 quadrilineatus^ from 

 Hongkong, from which 

 it seems to differ chiefly 

 in the number of scale 

 rows, than to E. skiltoni- 

 anus. This supposition is 

 strongly confirmed by a 

 sketch of the temporal 

 shields kindly made for 

 me by H. W. Parker 

 from the type in British 

 Museum, which shows 

 these shields to be identi- 

 cal with those of E. 

 quadrilineatus . 



