CROCODILIANS, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES. 



383 



This is the Great Basin species of the iS. undulatus oToiip, ranging- as 

 far southeast as San J>ernar(lino, California. It is the handsomest of 

 them, but displays great variety in the coloration, which, however, 

 always displays green on the upper surfaces, and freijuently blue. I 

 have taken it in the San Francisco Mountains, southwestern Utah, and 

 Summer Lake, Oregon, which is the most northern locality known to 

 me. In the .specimen from the latter locality there is a row of turcinoise 

 blue spots on each side of the back. 



In regard to the distribution of this si)ecies, Br. Merriam, in the 

 report on the results of the Death Valley expedition, remarks as fol- 

 lows : 



Sceloporus hiseriatns is ouc of the few lizards inhabitinif both the desert ranges of 

 the Great Basin and the interior valley of California. Specimens were obtained at 

 frequent intervals all the way from the Upper San Joaquin Valley, in California, to 

 the Upper Santa Clara Valley, in Utah, about 10 miles northwest of St. George. On 

 the east side of the Great Divide, in California, it was obtained on the Panamint, 

 Argus, Coso, White, and Inyo mountains, and at the east foot of the Sierra, in 

 Owens Valley (on Independence; Creek). On the west side of the Great Divide it 

 was common on the west slope of Walker Pass, and thence down into Kern Valley 

 to the neighborhood of Kernville, and southerly along the west slope of the Sierra 

 to Havilah and Walker Basin, and northerly to Three Rivers. It was common also 

 in the Canada de las Uvas and in the Upper San Joaquin A^ alley, where specimens 

 were collected on the Charleston Mountains (near Mountain Spring), on Mount 

 Magruder, in the Juniper Mountains, and in the Grapevine Mountains. 



A black form (having the belly intensely blue-black) was found on black lava rock 

 in Diamond Valley, Utah; on the Charleston Mountains (near Mountain Spring), 

 Nevada, where if was found both on rocks and on juniper trees, and on the White 

 Mountain.s, near the eastern boundary of California. In the latter locality it was. 

 common on the summit of the Divide, near the road between Deej) Spring and Owens 

 valleys, where it was Irequently seen on and among light-colored rocks, which made 

 it unusually conspicuous. It is entirely possible, however, that this very striking 

 contrast is a protection, causing the lizard to resemble the dark cracks in the rocks 

 when viewed from' above by passing hawks. 



Sceloporus liiseriafus HaUowell. 



