NORTH AMERICAN LIZARD. 109 



hind feet with five toes; all of which are unarmed or destitute 

 of nails. The toes are marked transversely with blackish lines. 

 The tail is not round, but considerably compressed sideways. 



'This species of lizard is unnoticed by Linnaeus, Gmelin, La 

 Cepede, Shaw, or any other of the later writers (so far as I 

 know) on the class of amphibia. It may, from merely attend- 

 ing to the description, be mistaken for the Lacerta punctata of 

 Linnaeus, from which, however, it differs in several essential 

 respects. The general ground colour of the two animals is very 

 different: that of the punctata is brown (corpus fuscum,) while 

 that of this lacerta is a dirty purple or violet. The throat, the 

 sides and the belly of the punctata are of- a dull yellow, while 

 the underside of this lacerta are a livid purplish. If these 

 were the only differences, I should not urge the difference of 

 species, for colour is known to be a very variable feature of ani- 

 mals, though I believe not remarkably so in the ttibc of lizards. 

 The two animals are spotted, but the spots of the lacerta punc- 

 tata are white : those of this species a fine yellow. It would 

 appear from Catesby's figure and description of the lacerta 

 punctata, that the spots of this species are confined to the back 

 and tail ; there being a double row upon the back and a single 

 one upon the tail. In my lacerta, the yellow spots are found 

 upon the head and legs as well as upon the back and tail, and 

 they are very irregularly distributed. Catesby makes no men- 

 tion of any small ash-coloured spots, of which there is a great 

 number upon the belly and sides of my lacerta. Lastly, the 

 tail of the lacerta punctata is round (cauda teres), whereas the 

 tail of the animal which 1. describe is manifestly compressed. 

 Upon the whole, I do not hesitate to conclude, that the lacerta 

 punctata and my lacerta are two distinct species. Believing this 

 to be the case, I should be glad to be able to give an appropriate 

 specific name to the new species. I cannot, at present, think of a 

 better than one derived from the prevailing colour of the animal, 

 a colour inclining to violet or purplish. I beg leave, therefore, 

 to name it Lacerta subviolacea, and would thus describe it for 

 the benefit of systematic writers, who often prefer a short des- 

 cription (ever liable, where the species of a family are nume- 

 rous, to mislead) to one more minute and extensive : 



