628 



REPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



that he had a specimen. On these meager data Merrem established 

 the systematic name Anolis cuvieri, but Cuvier himself subsequently, 

 in the second edition of his famous work, repudiated this name, sub- 

 stituting- that of Anolius vellfer. He added nothing to the original 

 account, only eliminated the word "probably" in front of "the other 

 Antilles," and reproduced the old figure. The following year, how- 

 ever, Guerin published another figure, without a description, under 

 the latter name. Seven years later Dumeril and Bibron give a veiy 

 elaborate description, under the name of Anolis velifer, of the only 

 specimen in the museum at Paris, the origin of which they were 

 ignorant of, but suspected to be from the Antilles. No mention is 

 made of it being the type of the species, or of Jamaica being its hab- 



■-•"' L%'\ 



83 84 



Figs. 81-84.— Anolis cuvieri. 81, side of head; 82, top of head; 83, under side of hind f«ot. Nat. 

 size. 84, skin on side of neck, and dorsal crest. 2 x natural size. No. 26999, U.S.N.M. 



itat, as alleged by Cuvier. Neither is there any mention in Dumeril's 

 Catalogue (1851) of the reptiles in the Paris museum of this specimen 

 being Cuvier's type, notwithstanding the statement on page ii of the 

 introduction that " all these types [those of Cuvier and others], so 

 precious to the naturalist, who should alwa} r s take them as standards 

 of comparison, have consequent^ been exactly recorded in all cases 

 in which they have been found." Nevertheless, the probability is that 

 they had before them Cuvier's original specimen. 



We next hear of the species in 1861, when Cope reported the habitat 

 to be Vieques, and in 1863, when Reinhardt and Luetken identified 

 specimens from Vieques and Tortola with Dumeril and Bibron's descrip- 

 tion. Afterwards specimens from Porto Rico were similarly identified 



