10 BULLETIN 15 4, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the building up of the excellent series of specimens in the collection 

 of the California Academy of Sciences and the assembling of locality 

 records and other data on the western species. 



In conclusion, it may be noted that the descriptions of the new 

 species of reptiles that have appeared in the present century are 

 typical of a time in which it has become increasingly difficult to 

 find a new form, particularly in North America. As a result of this 

 stress a modern worker in the herpetological field, if he is to continue 

 along the time-worn Linnaean line of describing and cataloguing new 

 species, must almost always resort to the citation of smaller and less 

 obvious differences in his diagnoses. Since such " taxonomic refine- 

 ments " often prove to be worthless when large series are examined, 

 it appears that the fundamental advances of the future will be 

 brought about largely through the agency of detailed revisional 

 studies in which the variation found is interpreted in the light of 

 phjdogenetic relationships. In the almost total absence of these 

 works it is little wonder that so many supposedly new forms prove 

 to be transient or provisional in nature. 



Genus CNEMIDOPHORUS Wagler 



RACE RUNNERS; WHIPTAILS; GROUND-LIZARDS; BLAUSANAS; ETC. 



1758. Lncerta (part) Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, p. 205. — Mereem, Syst. 



Amph., 1820, p. 62.— Habjlan, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Pliila., vol. 6, 1827, p. 



17; Med. and Phys. Researches, 1835, p. 144. 

 1768. 8ei)s (part) Laueenti, Syn. Kept., p. 58. 

 1820. Telus (part) Meeeem, Syst. Amph., p. 62. 

 1823. Ameiva Say (not of Meyer), Long's Exp. Rocky Mts., vol. 2, p. 50.— 



Haelan, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. 6, 1827, p. 7; Med. and Phys. 



Researches, 1835, p. 136. — Holbrook, N. Amer. Herpetology, ed. 1, vol. 1, 



1836, p. 63.— De Kay, Zool. New York, pt. 3, Reptiles and Amph., vol. 1, 



1842, p. 30. 

 1825. Tcjics (part) Spix, Spec. Nov. Lacert. Bras., p. 21. 



1830. Cncmidophorus (part) Waglee, Nat. Syst. Amph., p. 154. — Bonapaete, 

 Saggio Dist. Meth. Anim. Vert., Roma, 1831, p. 75.— Wiegmann, Herpetol- 

 ogia Mexicana, 1834, p. 26. — Dumeeil and Bibeon, Erp. Gen., vol. 1, 1834, p. 

 291.— Oken, Allegemeine Naturgeschichte, Stuttgart, 1836, p. 620.— Dumeeil 

 and Bibeon, Erp. Gen., vol. 5, 1839, p. 123.— Tschudi, Fauna Peruana, 1845, 

 p. 40. — Gieaed, Reptiles, Rept. U. S. Astronom. Exp. Southern Hemisphere, 

 vol. 2, 1855, p. 266. 



1831. Ameiva (part) Cuviee, Animal Kingdom, English transl. by H. H. 

 M'Murtrie, vol. 2, p. 21. — Geiffith, Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, 1831, p. 113. — 

 Geay, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 1, vol. 1, 1838, p. 277. 



1835. Ameiva (Cnemidophorus) Blainville, Nouv. Ann. du Mus., Paris, ser. 3, 



vol. 4, p. 256. 

 1843. Cnemidoplwrus Fitzingee, Syst. Roptiliuni, p. 20 (type species, 



C. mwrmtts).— Geay, Cat. Liz. British INIus., 1845, p. 20.— Bocourt, Miss. sci. 



Mex. et Amer. cent., vol. 3, 1874, p. 268.— Boulenger, Cat. Liz. British Mus., 



vol. 2, 1885, p. 360.— Gunthee, Reptilia and Batr., in " Biol. Cent.-Amer.", 



