TEim LIZARDS OF THE GENUS CNEMIDOPHORUS 165 



dorsal ground color inay appear in '•'' ste'piegeri'''' as well as in any 

 other population of tesselJatus^ but it does not occur in what has been 

 presumed to be typical stejnegerL It is true that the pattern of 

 dlchersonae resembles that of estehanensis on the sides, as in most 

 other features, the chief exception being in a somewhat further de- 

 velopment of the tendency to increase the number of dorsal lines. 

 This is only relative, however, and has little diagnostic value. In 

 both dickersonae and estehanensis the pattern tends to become obso- 

 lete posteriorly first. Since it is obviously impossible to define dick- 

 ersonae^ it is here made a synonym of tesseUatus. 



The forms of the higher levels to be discussed under the seconds sec- 

 tion outlined above (p. 155) are as follows: (jraJutmii^ imdnlatus^ 

 mnltiseutatus, stejnege7\ mundus, and hartolomas. 



The first of these, grahamii^ Avas described l)y Baird and Girard 

 in 1852, with gracilis^ mawioi'atu.s^ and tigris. The latter forms have 

 already been discussed, but grahaniii^ Avhich comes from Texas, has 

 been referred to this section because it is like the Californian stejae- 

 geri with whicli it may best be compared. 



In the original description, grahamii was se})arated only from 

 tigris and marmoratus. It is differed from both in certain propor- 

 tional features which are obviously of little diagnostic value, such 

 as " width of head and size of cephalic plates." Also, in having 

 larger collar (mesoptychial) scales. The latter character presents 

 an average variation from the desert representatives of tesseUatus^ 

 but it is not constant and, what renders it less useful in this diagnosis, 

 is the fact that it also frequently appears in western specimens from 

 the rougher areas. Therefore, it is valueless here. 



From the original description and from subsequent reports, it has 

 become evident that grahamii is to be regarded as a dark phase of 

 the tessellated lizard — not unlike stejnegeri of the west coast. It 

 was said by Strecker (1915, p. 25) that "Unlike the young of 

 tesseUatus, which are striped, the young of this species have the 

 color pattern of the adult." But, the same authority (1910, pp. 

 11-12) had already written that the young are as follows : " Black 

 above, with a median dorsal zigzag light line, buff in color. On 

 each side of this are four buff stripes, the lower one in each case 

 being much broken and rather indistinct. Small buff spots in the 

 black intersjoaces indicate the approach of the adult type of colora- 

 tion," It is the opinion of the writer that the young are almost 

 always striped, but that frequently the adults may lose the longi- 

 tudinal arrangement of the dorsal markings, more or loss completely. 

 The tj^pes themselves show indications of stripes, and the completely 

 tessellated or cross-barred phase is comparatively rare in most local- 

 ities. Because of the decidedly uuirked tendency for grahnwil to 



