108 NEW SPECIES OF 



No. XXII. 



Some account of a New Species of North American Lizard. By 



Dr. Barton. 



Read, April 15th, 1803. 



THE species of Lizard of which I propose to give the 

 Philosophical Society some account, and of which I have the 

 satisfaction of showing them not only a good drawing but also 

 a living specimen, was found at the distance of a few miles 

 from the city of Philadelphia, about eight weeks ago. It is 

 six inches and eight tenths of an inch in length from the end 

 of the nose to the extremity of the tail. The nose is very blunt, 

 the head forming nearly an oval. The whole body is re- 

 markably smooth, somewhat glutinous to the touch, and of a 

 dirty purplish colour, a good deal similar to that of our fox- 

 grape. The whole under side of the body, the legs, the tail, 

 &c. is of a livid purplish colour, and very abundantly besprink- 

 led over with blueish white spots of different sizes, but all of 

 them very minute. The upper part of the body is beauti- 

 fully marked with a number of spots of a fine yellow colour. 

 These spots are very irregularly distributed over the animal. 

 The most anterior of them are adjacent to the right eye. There 

 are no corresponding spots in the immediate vicinity of the 

 left eye. Some of the spots are nearly round, others are irre- 

 gularly oval. They are entirely confined to the upper part 

 and to the sides of the body of the animal, including the legs. 

 The largest of these spots is about the eighth of an inch in 

 diameter. 



A very minute description of the animal does not seem ne- 

 cessary, as the drawing in Plate IV. Fig. 6. will convey a much 

 better idea of it than the most finished description. In addition 

 to what I have already said, I shall therefore only observe, that 

 the mouth is very large, being more than half the length of the 

 head ; that the legs and feet are very small for the bulk of the 

 animal ; that the fore-feet are furnished with four toes, and the 



