534 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. 



length of tail, 210 mm.; length of arm to the end of the middle fiuyer, 

 29 mm.; length of leg to the end of the longest toe, 35 mm. 



The two type specimens sent to M. Bocourt by Professor Peters are 

 olivaceous above and greenish gray on the sides; they present no trace 

 of transverse or longitudinal bands. Head dotted with j'ellowish white 

 points, which cut the posterior or lateral edges of the scales. This light 

 color is also seen on the lips and on the subocular region. Lower sur 

 faces pale yellow, shaded to a greenish tint on the throat and on the 

 sides of the belly. 



Professor Duges ' gives the following color variations of this species: 



The typical coloration is brown above and yellow below, with the skhi of the lat- 

 eral fold jiale greenish. Varying from this type, the lateral region above the fold 

 becomes striped with brown-green or drab, a lighter band above a darker one. The 

 color of the fold may be cross-banded with darker, and the dorsal region marked 

 with transverse or rounded brown spots on a greenish on yellowish ground. Or the 

 dorsal region may be uniform brown with pale blue spots, each with a dark blue 

 center, and the fold band bo blue spotted. The last pattern indicates the var. lichen- 

 igerus (G. lichenigei-us Wiegmann). According to Dugfes there may be either one or 

 two loreals. 



Duges says that this species is less vivacious and irascible than the 

 G. Uocephalus, but that when it bites, it does so with much force. It is 

 readily domesticated; then comes to take its food from the fingers. It 

 eats all kinds of living insects, and swallows them by movements of the 

 throat muscles like those made by snakes. " I have seen it," he says, 

 " eat full-grown Scelopori of the species 8. scalaris and S. grammicus, 

 occupying about ten minutes in the operation. The country people 

 believe them to be poisonous, an opinion which it is unnecessary to 

 contradict; but I know from repeated experiences that when they bite 

 they draw blood, and they do not easily let go." 



Duges further remarks that in the valley of Mexico the Barissia 

 imbricata is found about the acequias, but in the State of Guanajuato 

 it only occurs in the mountains, where the winter is tolerably severe. 

 It is also found in the Orizaban district, as Mr. W. S. Blatchley^ states 

 that he found it at an elevation of 11,000 feet on Mount Orizaba, and 

 I have three specimens from Lacuatipan, Hidalgo from Dr. Santiago 

 Bernard. According to Duges it is also found in Michoacan. 



Barissia imbricata fViegmann. 



• Naturaleza, Mexico, 1893, p. 294. 

 *Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1893, p. 41. 



