October IS, 1920 Vol. VII, pp. 61-63 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



NEW ENGLAND ZOOLOGICAL CLUB 



A NOTE ON XIPHOCERCUS 



BY THOMAS BARBOUR 



I WAS greatly interested when my friend Mr. G. K. Noble 

 told me not long ago that the American Museum of Natural 

 History in New York had received from a correspondent in 

 Bogotd some specimens of what has been called Xiphocercus 

 heterodermus. In 1909, when in Jamaica, I had observed and 

 collected a number of the Xiphocercus valenciennesi, and had 

 often wondered how this would compare with the Colombian 

 species. My doubt as to the monophyletic character of the 

 genus, was completely substantiated when Mr. Noble very 

 kindly allowed the Museum of Comparative Zoology to have 

 one of his suite of Bogota specimens in exchange. 



A careful examination at once revealed the fact that the very 

 superficial similarity was doubtless due to these two lizards hav- 

 ing arisen through somewhat parallel modifications from un- 

 doubtedly very distantly related Anolis-like stocks. The char- 

 acter of the head scales and their arrangement, the contour 

 squamation on the sides of the body, the formation of the digits, 

 and the character of the tail, are quite unlike in the two species. 

 The tail of the Colombian form appears to be somewhat pre- 

 hensile: it curves in a vertical plane, and its squamation sug- 



