CROCODILIANS, IJZAKDS, AND SNAKES. 

 (ierrhono'.us llocephalus iiifernalis liaird. 



519 



GERRHONOTUS NOBILIS Baird and Girard. 



Gerrhonotus nobilia B.viRO, U. S. Mex. Bound. Surv., II, Eeptiles, 1859, p. 11, pi. 



XXV, figs. 1-8. 

 Elgaria nohilis B.\ird and Girard, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., VI, August, 1852, 



p. 12!1; Fort Webster, New Mexico. 



Body sleuder, very small, much depressed. Tail two and one-fifth 

 times the head and body. Dorsal scales in fourteen longitudinal and 

 fifty-eight oblique series; sixty-two from chin to anus. Tail with 131 

 whorls. Scales all entirely 

 smooth, or the middle dor- 

 sal rows with a very blunt 

 obsolete carination. Frontal 

 plate rhomboidal ; large, sep- 

 arating the internasals from 

 the ]>ostfrontals. Two pairs 

 of internasals and two of 

 postnasals. Supraorbitals 

 in scales of 5 and 3. lliiid 

 leg from knee equal to dis- 

 tance from snout to ear, 

 which is one- fifth the head 

 and body. 



Ground color light yellow- 

 ish olive; back with ten 

 broad bars (three scales 

 wide) edged behind with 

 black, having a wliitish mar- 

 gin posteriorly. Tail with 

 thirty half rings of the 

 same, changing behind into 



blotches. Sides with narrow black bars, on a light ground, 

 greenish white, each scale si)Otted with blackish. 



The frontal plate of this species is smaller than in many others of 

 the section, although it separates the posterior internasals from the 

 postfrontals, the gap between them filled u[) by the upper i)osterior 

 postnasal. It is (piite probable, however, that occasionally the pos- 

 terior internasals and the postfrontals may come into actual contact, as 

 the former are considerably longer than in G. nudficarinatus. I do not 

 perceive any other special peculiarities in the cephalic plates. The 



Fig. 92. 



GEKRHOXOTUS NOBILIS RAIKD AND GiRARD. 

 = 1. 



Arizona. 



Cat. No. 8763, U.S.N.M. 



lieneath 



