CROCODILIANS, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES. 309 



laterally and heliiiid with blue. A faint light greenish line from the 

 eye and another from the angle of the mouth embrace between them 

 on the sides a dark stripe, quite continuous in some specimens and 

 darker than the ground color; they are sometimes very distinct on the 

 tail. The under parts are greenish- white; sometimes strongly greenish, 

 varied with paler, and with a brassy luster. The jaws are banded 

 transversly with blue and yellowish, extending obliquely backward on 

 each side of the chin. In the male is a distinct rounded black spot, 

 encircled by a yellowish border, situated in the olive of either side and 

 in the posterior portion of the anterior third of the space between fore 

 and hind legs. This is less distinct in the female. The legs are banded 

 above. The under surface of tail is without markings. 



In some specimens there is a tendency to a second large black spot 

 on each side of the neck, "* 



In nearly all the more Western specimens of this species, as in Cat. Ko. 

 4122 from the Colorado River, there are certain differences from the types 

 Cat. No. 2753, Thus the dorsal scales become gradually larger from the 

 head along the rump to the tail, instead of having the rump scales like 

 those of the back, and both abruptly smaller than those on the tail. 

 Along the middle of the back the scales are all carinated, showing about 

 20 longitudinal ridges. Over this space the scales become gradually 

 smaller from the central line, then on the sides they change quite 

 abruptly to smaller, more tubercular, and ecarinate ones, smaller in the 

 groin and above the arm. There are twelve or fourteen ridges on the 

 rump between the hind legs, instead of sixteen or twentj^ in U. stans- 

 huriana. The scales on the lower part of back and rump are quite as 

 large and even larger than those on the belly, not smaller. 



The colors are quite similar; the upper part dark green, spotted with 

 lighter. Few dorsal series of blotches. The under parts are blue iu 

 very old specimens; the chin darker; the lateral black spot very 

 conspicuous. 



The sides are frequently quite uniformly dark green, with a series of 

 light vertical bars behind the lateral black spot. In Cat. No. 2753 there 

 are two black bars across the nape. In this variety there is an evident 

 ap])roach to the peculiar characters of Uta ornata. 



This species is abundant in the entire region between the Rocky 

 Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, I have taken it as far north as 

 Summer Lake in central Oregon, north of which I have no record of 

 its existence. It inhabits rocky places, especially the basaltic cliff's so 

 common in the Great Basin, and delights in the hot sun. It is very 

 active in its movements. 



Dr, Merriam, in his report on the results of the Death Valley Expe- 

 dition, makes the following remarks concerning the distribution- of this 

 species : 



This tiny brown-shouldered lizard is common over nearly the whole of the desert 

 region traversed by the expedition from California to Utah and Arizona, and occurs 

 also on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada, as the subjoined list of localities shows. 



