CROCODILIAN!^, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES. 305 



Stejueger's description of this well-marked species is so full that I 

 quote it at length : 



Description of the type. — Female. Head moderately depressed, snout narrow ; can- 

 thns rostralia well marked; nostrils rather large, almost superior, much nearer to 

 the tip of the snout than to the orbit; ear opening large, with four very long, tri- 

 angular, pointed scales and three smaller ones in front; head shields smooth; frontal 

 divided transversely; about eight of the posterior supraorbital scales enlarged, one 

 being ijarticularly large, these separated from the froiitals by a single series of 

 granules; superciliaries, particularly the anterior ones, very long and narrow; a 

 very long and narrow infraorbital; occipital as large as ear opening; supralabials 

 six, and, like rostral, very wide and low; infralabials scarcely higher, hut consider- 

 ably narrower; scales on throat small, rounded, smooth, those on the middle and 

 near the edge of the gular fold somewhat larger; only one transverse gular folfl, 

 not denticulated; sides of neck strongly folded; scales on back and sides rather 

 large, rounded and convex granules, those on lower surface of body larger, flat, 

 hexagonal; limbs with enlarged, keeled scales, and rather long, the anterior when 

 pressed to the side reaching to the insertion of the thigh, the posterior when 

 stretched forward reaching to the orbit; twenty femoral pores on each side; tail 

 depressed at base, slender, its length more than one and three-fourths that of head 

 and body, covered with rings of rather large scales which, on the upper surface and 

 the sides, are jjrovided with a very strong keel ending in a projecting spine. 



Color above olive, more brownish on head and tail, with irregular dusky, nearly 

 blackish, cross bands; lighter spots, or marblings, on the interspaces; a very dis- 

 tinctly marked, straight, and intensely black band from shoulder to shoulder across 

 the back; limbs irregularly cross-banded with dusky; basal two-thirds of tail pale 

 brownish olive with wide black crossbars, terminal third uniformly blackish ; under 

 surface greenish white, bluish on flanks, with lighter dots ; chin and throat with a 

 network of bluish gray. 



Diniensiona. — Total length, 229 mm. ; head and body, 79 mm. ; tail, 150 mm. ; fore 

 limb, 37 mm. ; hind limb, 61 mm. 



Variation. — In addition to the type, Dr. Mearns's collection contains sis other 

 specimens, which fully establish the characters of the species. The individual varia- 

 tion is comparatively slight, and but few deviations from the above description of 

 the type are noticed. In some specimens there seems to Ite a slight anterior gular 

 fold, but it is not marked by any difference in the scutellatiou. In one specimen the 

 frontal is not divided transversely, but in about one-half the large supraoculars are 

 separated from the frontal by a double row of grannies. Other discrepancies will be 

 noticed in the list of si»ecimens given below. 



The males have enlarged postanal scales. 



The individual dirterences of coloration consist mainly in the outline and intensity 

 of the dusky crossbars, while the black collar is equally distinct in all. 



The sexes are alike in color, except that the blue flank patch is somewhat darker 

 and wider in tlie males. 



Compariaon with Uta ihalasai)) a.— Although closely allied to Uta thalassina, 

 described in 1863 by Professor Cope from specimens collected at Cape St. Lucas, the 

 ))re8ent species differs in many essential points, most of which have been indicated 

 in the diagnosis. 



In addition to these it may l)c remarked that the granules on the back are larger 

 in rta meanisii, but that the ventral scales are smaller; it lacks the well-defined 

 anterior gular fold of U, thalassina; the legs and tail are comparatively longer, and 

 the femoral pores are more numerous; each of the latter, moreover, is bordered 

 behind by two granules, while in I', thalassina there are three. The last-mentioned 

 species appears also to be nuich the larger, as the specimens collected by Dr. Mearns 

 seem to be quite adult. 



The most striking diflference, however, are the long preauricular spines and the 

 NAT MUS 98 — 20 



