INTRODUCTION. 221 
upon nearly every island in the Caribbean area. They are rare in Mexico and 
Central America and the species are few. Of their distribution in northern 
South America we know little or nothing. This, considering the collecting which 
has been done, indicates that they are very rare if not absent.’ The two Trini- 
dadian species, molei and buergeri, are very scarce. Indeed, zoélogically Trini- 
dad is hardly an island, so recent has been its continental connection. No 
sphaerodactyls have been found in the Leeward group composed of Aruba, Buen 
Aire, and Curacao; nor on Margarita nor yet on Old Providence, St. Andrews, 
or the Corn Islands, but many of these locations have hardly been touched 
herpetologically. 
In the Greater Antilles and in the Bahamas as well as in many of the Lesser 
Antilles of which we can speak with authority, they fairly swarm. Sphaero- 
dactylus argus in Jamaica occurs in every native hut on the Luguanea plain about 
Kingston, under every stone wall, under fallen leaves, and dry vegetable trash 
in great numbers and other species elsewhere are very common. In general, the 
species are confined each to a single island; the exceptions occur mostly in the 
Bahamas. Here many of the islands are but recently separated from each other 
or human migration may be playing some part. Sphaerodactylus notatus de- 
serves special mention. This species, first made known from Key West, occurs 
on most of the Bahamas and on Cuba, the very slightly varying Haitian indi- 
viduals have been given a name (difficilis) which is, I think, probably justified. 
Whereas it had been usually believed that notatus was of purely fortuitous 
occurrence in the city of Key West, further investigation shows that the species 
occurs widespread in the Florida Keys and upon the mainland in the extreme 
southern tip of the peninsula of Florida as well. This beyond doubt, is a definite 
case of chance transportal, but whether by human agency or by the action of 
wind and wave cannot now be told. Nor is it surprising, for zodgeographers 
have been inclined to believe that no weight could be given to evidence based on 
the existing dispersal of small gekkonids and scincids. There is very clear evi- 
dence among the islands of the Pacific that small lizards of these families have 
been carried hither and yon beyond doubt, by the wide-sailing Polynesians. In 
the Pacific Islands, however, one finds the same species widely scattered upon 
isolated islands distributed far and wide throughout an immense area. The 
1 Boulenger (Cat. lizards Brit. mus. 1885, 1, p. 224) records a specimen of what he calls S. fantasticus 
from Caracas. The locality record has never been verified and although the description is in rather vague 
terms and there is no indication to show whether Boulenger’s description was drawn from this specimen 
or not, it nevertheless reads like fantasticus from Guadeloupe. Boulenger’s other specimen listed is 
from Antigua and is probably elegantulus. 
