622 EEPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 19012. 



be retained for these and allied species, the Mabuyas, then, to be 

 known by the latter name or that of skinks. 



This genus is confined to the Greater Antilles and Central America, 

 no species occurring 1 in the Caribbean islands. Only a single one is 

 known from Porto Rico. 



CELESTUS PLEII" (Dumeril and Bibron). 



1839. Diploglossus pleii Dumeril and Bibron, Erpet. Gen., V, p. 605 (type 

 locality erroneously given as Martinique; type in Mus. Paris; Plee 

 coll.). — Dumeril, Cat. Meth. Rept. Mus. Paris, I, 1851, p. 154. — Bou- 

 lenger, Cat. Liz. Brit. Mus., II, 1885, p. 29-1 (part).— Celestus p. Cope, 

 Proc. Phila. Acad., 1868, p. 124. — D. (Celestus) p. Bocourt, Miss. 

 Sci. Mex., Zool., Rept., livr. 6, 1879, p. 381, pi. xxn, figs. 4-46 (type). 



1868. Celestus degener Cope, Proc. Phila. Acad., 1868, p. 124 (type locality, Porto 

 Rico) . 



1876. Diploglossus plei Peters, Mon. Ber. Berlin Akad. Wiss., 1876, p. 708 (Porto 

 Rico). — Gundlach, Anal. Soc. Espan. Hist. Nat., X, 1881, p. 811 

 (Porto Rico). — Stahl, Fauna Puerto-Rico, 1882, p. 69 (Porto Rico). 



The type of Celestus pleii collected by Plee and now in the Paris 

 Museum is said to be from Martinique. Taking into consideration 

 that it remains unique and that the genus is entirely foreign to the 

 fauna of the Lesser Antilles, there can be no doubt that the locality is 

 erroneous, like that of the majority of reptiles reported as having been 

 collected in Martinique by Plee. 



The next question is to decide to which of the known species the 

 name C. pleii should be applied. Bocourt 6 has given a very fine figure 

 of the unique type, which has every appearance of being accurate. It 

 shows a Celestus very close to our Porto Rican specimens, Cope's C. 

 degener. The only differences I can discover consist in the latter having 

 the second upper labial higher and broadly in contact with the post- 

 nasal and an apparently larger nostril. The postocular and temporal 

 scales are also different, being of about equal size in the figure, while 

 in our Porto Rican specimens the postorbital series consist of quite 

 small scales followed by a series of three very large temporal plates. 

 It is very doubtful whether any stress should be laid on these apparent 

 differences, which, after all, may be due to inexactness of the drafts- 

 man or engraver. The division of the prefrontal in the type of C. pleii 

 as shown in Bocourt's figure is probably only an individual aberration, 

 a similar case being also recorded in one of the Jamaican species. 



Knowing as we now do that Plee sent Porto Rican fishes to the Paris 

 Museum, probably collected by himself on that island while en route 

 to Martinique, we have every reason to believe that a number of his 

 reptiles were obtained there also, the present species among them, and 



« To Mr. Plee, a French traveler, who collected the type specimen. 

 &Miss. Sci. Mex. Zool., Rept., pi. xxn, fig. 4. 



