OX WEST INDIAN REPTILES. 



IQUANIBjE. 



BY SAMKEL GASMAN. 



This notice contains a list of the species of Iguanidse 

 at present represented in the Museum of Comparative Zo- 

 ology, at Cambridge, Mass., with localities and notes, 

 and with descriptions of such as are new or little known. 

 It includes a tolerable proportion of all the species hith- 

 erto recognized as belonging to this region, together with 

 quite a number that do not appear to have been deseribed. 

 The list was prepared some years ago, but, owing to un- 

 certainty in regard to some of the species discovered in 

 the early part of the century, the types being inaccessible 

 and the descriptions insufficient, it was laid aside until it 

 might be put into more satisfactory shape. The splendid 

 catalogues of Doctor Boulenger, recently published, have 

 made it possible to identify with confidence many species 

 which previously were, in the absence of typical speci- 

 mens, only conjectural. The Doctor's classification lias 

 been followed pretty closely in the main ; the departures 

 made are principally due to differences of opinion con- 

 cerning names adopted or the relative rank of certain 

 forms. In answer to objections that may be urged against 

 bringing varieties as prominently forward as is usual with 

 species, it may be said that the nature of the case seems 

 to demand it; abrupt separation and isolation on the dif- 

 ferent islands and consequent absence ol gradual shading 

 of the varieties, one into another, appear to entitle them 

 to more prominence. 



ESSEX INST. BUU.i:n.\, VOL. \i\. 2* (25) 



