CROCODILIANS, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES. 257 



ous, and in fact confluent. It is then generally of an ashy gray color 

 (in alcohol), embracing large dark rounded or oval spots. Sometimes the 

 ground color is ashy, with distant rounded spots. The yellow transverse 

 bauds are very conspicuous, eight or ten from head to tail, and about 

 forty on the tail. The supraorbital region is generally faintly margined 

 internally with yellowish. An external margin extends to the nos- 

 trils. There is a yellow band across the snout anterior to the nostrils 

 and continuous with a yellow edge of the upper lip; this sends back a 

 short branch between the nostrils. There is also a short yellow line 

 from behind the eye. The chin is always streaked longitudinally with 

 bluish. 



With a large series of specimens before me I must confess my inability 

 to separate the C. gambelii of Baird and Girard from wisUzenii, the sup- 

 posed diiferences not being constant. The absence of the light spots 

 was the chief character of the type specimen, the greater size of the 

 scales being due to its larger dimensions than the type of wisUzenii. 



The Grotaphytus fasciatus of Hallowell (type No. 2736) is precisely 

 identical with the gambelii type, having very conspicuous transverse 

 bauds. The white dots of typical wisUzenii, however, are very distinct. 



Dr. Stejneger has separated those individuals from California as a 

 distinct species under the name of C. silus.^ The sole defiuition given 

 is the following: 



"Similar to C. widizenii, but with the snout much sliorter and more truncate in 

 profile; greatest width of head equal to or greater than distance from nostril to ear 

 opening; distance between nostril and inner anterior orbital angle considerably less 

 than vertical diameter of ear opening."' 



Were the above characters constant they would not alone character- 

 ize a species of lizard, and examination of the series in the national 

 collection shows that they are not constant nor correlated with any 

 other character. I tind a more reliable peculiarity of the Pacilic repre- 

 sentatives of the C. wisUzenii to be the character of the scales of the 

 palm and sole, in which it resembles the two species already' described, 

 C. coUaris and C reticulaius. This character, however, fades out and 

 grades into the typical condition, even in Californian individuals. Thus 

 specimens with palm and solar scales keeled are Cat. Nos. 8157, U581, 

 11757, 11790, and 12GG3. The keels are not so strong in Cat. Nos. 2685, 

 2717, and 2722. They are wanting in Cat. Nos. 8032 and 14195 ; all from 

 the Pacitic region. Specimens taken by myself near Pyramid Lake, 

 Nevada, have the subdigital scales keeled and mucronate. The ground 

 color is dark, and it is crossed by light orange crossbars, which inclose 

 subquadrate areas. In one specimen these areas tend to be broken up 

 into large oval spots. In the type of C. cojjei, from the southern part 

 of Lower California, the subdigital lamelhe are equally cariuate aud 

 mucronate, and the quadrate color areas consist of from six to nine 

 round spots. 



' North American Fauna, No. 3, 1890, p. 105. 

 NAT MUS 98 17 



