HERPETOLOGY OF PORTO RICO. 



629 



by Cope, Peters, and Garman. When Boulenger published the second 

 volume of his catalogue of lizards the British Museum did not possess 

 any specimens of this species, and his description is apparently only a 

 condensation of that of Dumeril and Bibron. It is consequently to be 

 noted that no direct comparison of Porto Rican specimens has hitherto 

 been made with the type specimen without locality in Paris. 



Detailed as Dumeril and Bibron's description is, it is not sufficiently 

 so for proving whether their specimen really is the Porto Rican form 

 and not the same as A. ricordii, from Santo Domingo. So much is 

 certain, that the characters which they rely upon for distinguishing 

 the two species do not hold in any one particular. As a matter of 

 fact, the two descriptions both fit Santo Domingo specimens, some 

 agreeing with that of A. velifer, some with A. ricordii. It may even 

 be stated that the character assigned to the former as particularly dis- 



Fir.s. 85-86.— Anolis ricorpii. Santo Domingo. 85, side of head; 86, top of head. Natural size. 



No. 12108, U.S.N. M. 



tinctive, namely, the greater flatness of the scales on top of the snout, 

 is more characteristic of the Santo Domingo specimens than those 

 from Porto Rico. Another distinction derived from the descriptions 

 of Dumeril and of Boulenger (namely, the scaling of the gular pouch, 

 that of A. ricordii being entirely covered with granules, while that of 

 A. velifer (=cuvieri) is said to be " nearly naked, with only a few lines 

 of small ovalo-rhomboid, feebly keeled scales on each side " does not 

 hold either, as it is only a sexual difference, the former being that of 

 the female, the latter that of the male. Nevertheless, the two species 

 differ quite sufficiently to establish their claims to separate specific 

 recognition. 



The differences between A. cuvieri, from Porto Rico, and A. ricordii, 

 from Santo Domingo, though slight, are both constant and easily 

 applied. The scales on top of the head seem to be smaller in the for- 



