648 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. 



black witli a ceutral white spot. The posterior upper labials, indeed, 

 are spotted, and there is a spot anterior to and one behind the ear, but 

 no farther, neither are there the spots on the sides of the head above, 

 but, instead, a faint continuous line. 



I have before me no such series of specimens as of guttulatus, but one 

 nearly as large as the type Cat. No. 31(51 is distinctly marked with nearly 

 black lines on a light olive ground, the upper labials distinctly spotted. 

 There is a broad central stripe of the light olive, occupying the adjacent 

 two-thirds of the two middle rows of scales. The upper edge of the 

 second row, however, is olive, this color interdigitating with the black 

 on the outside of second row. In this respect it differs from the corre- 

 sponding stripe of imdtivirgatus, in which the adjacent thirds of the 

 first and second rows are involved in a common brown stripe. The 

 adjacent edges of the second and third rows of scales are brown. This 

 is followed by four light and three dark stripes. The most conspicuous 

 markings, however, are the four dark stripes on 4f rows of scales, the 

 central third of the space being plain olive, the two dark f-tripes on 

 each side of this being nearly equal to each other and to their olive 

 interspace. The scales have no dusky edging behind in the light 

 stripes. This differs from multivirgatns again, in having the inner 

 dark dorsal stripe as small and even smaller than the other, instead of 

 larger. 



In Cat. No. 4140, still larger than the type, the upper dorsal dark 

 liiu^ has disappeared, leaving the lower quite distinct (separated from 

 its fellow by four rows of scales). All the dorsal scales are margined 

 behind with dusky. 



All the other large specimens are entirely without lines. All the 

 scales edged behind with dusky. Cat. No. 3161, however, has none of 

 the scales with dusky edges behind where traversed by the olive strii)es. 



In respect to the very largest specimens I have no means of deciding 

 as to whether they really belong here or to guttulatus. I have decided 

 the question chiefly on account of the short legs and hind toes. One 

 of these from Matamoras, Cat. No. 3151, is the stoutest North American 

 skink I have ever seen. The head and body together measure 5 inches; 

 the head is 27.5 mm. wide, or equal to the distance from nostril to ear, 

 and the circumference of the perfectly cylindrical body where thickest 

 is 100 mm. 



The postnasal plate is sometimes absent. Such is the case in Cat. 

 Nos. 4770, 5247, and 7842. In Cat. No. 9225 it is present on one side 

 and absent on the other. These have 28 rows of scales, except Cat. No. 

 7842, which has 26. 



Some exceptional forms of Eumeces ohsoletus have been sent me from 

 Douglas County, Kansas, by Prof. F. H. Snow, of Lawrence. It is rep- 

 resented by three large adult individuals of very light colors. They 

 differ remarkably in the scuta of the nose. In one the frontonasals 

 and supranasals are in contact; in the other two they are separated by 



